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«Up you go 


He pointed towards the royals 

{^page 67) 


BOB DASH AWAY 

TREASURE HUNTER 

A Story of Adventure in the Strange South Seas 

/ 

BY 

CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY 

AUTHOR OF ^ 

*‘Bob Dashaway, Privateersman,” “The Boys of the Service” Series, 
“American Fights and Fighters” Series, etc., etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 

1912 



Copyright, 1912, by 

THE SPRAGUE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
as “The Young American Treasure Hunters” 


Copyright, 1912, by 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 


Published September, 1912 


DEDICATED 

TO 

MY YOUNGEST NEPHEW 

CYRUS LOYD CHARLES BRADY 


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PREFACE 


The pleasant reception accorded to Masters Dash- 
away and Barrett and their friends has encouraged 
me to continue further to chronicle their adventur- 
ous career; and, in accordance with promise in 
the first volume of the series, Bob Dashaway, 
Privateersman, I have here set forth what hap- 
pened to them in the piping times of peace in that 
comparatively unknown South Pacific Ocean. 

My young readers will be glad to learn that 
there was such a ship as the Marigold, That 
little vessel sailed in the company of Sir Francis 
Drake, making that desperate voyage through the 
Straits of Magellan and into the face of the un- 
known Pacific, where it disappeared from mortal 
view. I have often wondered, as I have read the 
familiar story in one form or another, what be- 
came of the Marigold. This is an attempt of the 
imagination to set forth her possible fate. 

Some of the other characters in the book are 
taken from ancient and honoured seamen I have 
known in the days when I, too, went down to the 
sea in ships and sailed the great deep. Notably 

vii 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


is this true of Dethridge and Buntlin, who call to 
my mind old friends of wet decks and stormy seas ; 
men who taught me knot-and-splice seamanship 
and the rough and ready side of the sailor’s life. 
Clawfinger, too, I have seen. At least I have seen 
that claw-like talon of which the young reader can 
get some idea by looking at the map of the Island 
made for this book by a young relative of mine 
who himself has been far-voyaging, and is now in 
distant seas. 

Naturally, it is not to be expected that boys like 
Bob and Jack are going to remain quietly at home. 
Before they reach man’s estate there are many 
things yet to happen to them, and certain circum- 
stances that are brewing are about to lead them to 
the other end of the world into the Arctic Seas. I 
hope many of the boys’ friends will want to see 
how they behave themselves under these totally 
different conditions. I have an idea that when the 
time comes to weigh anchor the old Commodore 
and Captain Harper, Mr. Rayton and the two old 
shell-back sailors will be together again in the 
Young American. 

Cyrus Townsend Brady. 

The Rectory of Si. George's Church, 

Kansas City, Mo., Easter, 1912. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER page 

I A Cry for Help in the Night . . . . i 

II In “The Running Bowline” Tavern . . i6 

III Commodore Harkness on the Trail . . 27 

IV Old Dethridge Gets the Information . . 44 

V Into Friendly Hands on the Betsey , . 57 

VI The Map of the Island 78 

VII Clawfinger’s Story 90 

VHI Mr. Rayton Stops the First Mutiny . . 107 

IX The Mutiny is Renewed 125 

X The Men Make Conditions .... 140 

XI Wrecked off Cape Horn 155 

XII The End of the Betsey 174 

XIII The Commodore in a Pleasant Mood . . 192 

XIV Rescued 201 

XV The Story of the Treasure .... 212 

XVI Sighting the Treasure Island .... 230 

XVII Chased by the War Canoes .... 245 

XVIII The Battle in Thumb Bay . . . .255 

XIX Planning the Attack 273 

XX The Fight on the Beach 288 

XXI The Treasure at Last 303 


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ILLUSTRATIONS 


“Up you go!” He pointed towards the royals (Page 67) 

Frontispiece 

FACING 

PAGE 

Their attention was aroused by a sudden sharp cry for 


help (page 7 ) 46 

“Perhaps you had better keep it, Captain Harper,” said 

Bob, handing the parchment back (page 86 ) . . 88 

“Treasure!” exclaimed the man, his eyes gleaming. 


“ Lemme have another look at that map, yer honour” 
(page 96) 136 

“Here is the chart,” said the captain (page 151) . . 178 

The next huge roller lifted her high up and hurled her 

further on (page 174) 220 

The seaman stood up in the boat, and said one or two 
words in a tongue not unlike that used by the island- 
ers (page 256) • . . 262 

Her timbers were rotted clear through, but she still pre- 
served the outlines of a ship ( page 307) . . . 304 


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BOB DASHAWAY, TREASURE HUNTER 






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CHAPTER I 


A CRY FOR HELP IN THE NIGHT 

When we last saw the Young American she was 
the smartest, cockiest, sauciest privateer that ever 
flew the American flag and swept the mighty seas 
for prey. She is still under the same flag and 
the same fine old man commands her. She is still 
one of the smartest ships afloat, too; but alas, 
she can no longer be described as “ cocky ” or 
“ saucy ’’ 1 

The War of 1812 is happily over; the big pivot 
gun, the famous “ Long Tom ” that used to send 
its thunder over the forecastle, the long rows of 
gleaming brass nines and twelves she carried in her 
broadsides, have all been landed and stowed away 
ashore. The portholes on either side, however, 
are not all empty, for the heavier pieces have been 
replaced by eight small, short six-pounders, con- 
sidered substantial enough by Commodore Hark- 
ness for any emergency which would be apt to 


2 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


arise in the East Indies, the China seas, the Pacific 
islands, or wherever she might go a-cruising. 

The natives of these far-off and unfrequented 
regions are apt to be somewhat troublesome on 
occasion, and it would not be well for so valuable 
a ship as the Young American to trust herself to 
their tender mercies without some protection ; hence 
this slighter armament, at which in other more 
warlike days her people would have laughed. 

With the signing of the treaty of peace between 
Great Britain and the United States naturally the 
business of the privateer, and her pleasure for 
that matter, abruptly ceased. Old Commodore 
Harkness, happily a very rich man now, had at 
first elected to enjoy the “ piping times of peace ” 
ashore. He retained his interest in ships and sea, 
however, and presently a numerous and well ap- 
pointed fleet carried to far lands the house flag 
of Harkness and Dashaway. Madam Abigail 
Dashaway, his sister, had shrewdly embarked much 
of her abundant capital in the enterprise with him. 

But an old sea dog like the commodore natu- 
rally could not be content forever to sit in a count- 
ing house, piling up profits in merchandising or 


TREASURE HUNTER 


3 


trading, the most lucrative business then engaged 
in by American citizens, and presently the old long- 
ing for blue water came upon him too strongly to 
be resisted. It was not more money he wanted 
so much as the heave of an unquiet deck beneath 
his feet, the salt breeze in his face, the white caps 
breaking before his eyes. 

The Young American metamorphosed into a 
peaceful trader, her sometime flush deck disfigured 
by a long deck house amidships, and with a high 
poop aft and top-gallant forecastle added, had 
already made several successful voyages to Rus- 
sian ports in the two years that had elapsed since 
the end of the war with England. On her return 
from her last voyage, the commodore determined 
to take command of her himself, outfitting her for 
a long cruise around the Cape of Good Hope to 
the East Indies, thence to China, across the Pacific 
to Honolulu, thereafter on down the South Amer- 
ican coast, around the Horn, and so home again 
around the world I 

The boys of her privateer days had scattered, 
some of the older ones had become officers of 
smart ships; two. Bob Dashaway and Jack Barrett, 


4 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


his particular chum, had been sent rigorously to 
school, where the story of their warlike adventures 
made them the envy of their schoolmates. Both 
lads had just turned sixteen, they had never lost 
their love for the sea, and both were fully de- 
termined to go a-cruising again just as soon as 
they could wring reluctant consents thereto from 
their parents and get away. When they heard 
that the old commodore, whom they both loved, 
was to resume command of his famous ship for 
this long and fascinating voyage both clamoured 
to be appointed to her. 

The share of the prize money earned by these 
youngsters on the most notable of the Young Amer- 
ican^ s war cruises * amounted to a considerable 
sum, and they had both been prudent enough to 
follow good advice and invest it in the newly organ- 
ised shipping firm of Harkness & Dashaway. They 
were both, therefore, to a certain extent, share- 
holders in the corporation and part owners of the 
fleet and of the Young American, the flagship so 
to speak. 

* For a detailed account of this famous cruise see the first 
volume of this series, Bob Dashaway, Privateersman. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


5 


Bob Dashaway had some difficulty in winning 
his mother’s consent for him to make the cruise. 
It was not so hard a task as it had been to get 
her permission to go privateering, but it was hard 
enough to exercise the young man’s energies and 
determination to the utmost. His mother had 
not given up her cherished dream of seeing him 
a professional man, minister, lawyer, or doctor, 
and she very much wanted him to go to Harvard 
College to complete his education, but the boy’s 
bent was toward the sea, and in the end his per- 
sistency overcame her objections as it had before. 

Jack Barrett’s mother had been dead for some 
years. Madam Dashaway had been a sort of a 
mother to him in the two years that had elapsed 
since the cruising and consequent friendship be- 
tween the two lads, and Barrett’s father was more 
easily persuaded, after Madam Dashaway’s con- 
sent had been obtained. Behold, therefore, our 
young heroes again enrolled upon the ship’s books 
as midshipmen, a thing unusual in the merchant 
service to be sure, but Commodore Harkness was a 
law unto himself in that as in almost everything 
else. 


6 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


For various reasons of trade, and because he 
could get a better and more lucrative freightage 
there, the Young American had run down from 
New London to New York, and was anchored in 
the East River, loaded to the hatches and about 
ready to sail. Just as soon as certain very im- 
portant business matters had been attended to she 
would clear and get under way. Commodore 
Harkness thought that the next day would enable 
them to up anchor and take their departure. 

An aunt of Jack Barrett’s, with some charming 
daughters, lived in New York at the time, and the 
boys had pleaded with the commodore for a last 
afternoon and evening ashore. As Commodore 
Harkness did not intend to be delayed by waiting 
for two young midshipmen in case he were enabled 
to weigh in the morning, he had given them strict 
instructions to be aboard at five bells, half-past 
ten, in the first night watch, and he had promised 
to have the dinghy at the wharf on Front Street, 
where the Young American had loaded, at four 
bells. 

A little after nine o’clock, therefore, the two 
youngsters reluctantly left Mrs. Barrett’s hospit- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


7 


able home, in a hired chaise, and were driven down 
to Front Street. Dismissing the vehicle there, 
they walked down the short street toward the ap- 
pointed pier, near the south end of Manhattan 
Island. They were strolling along, gaily talking 
over the very pleasant afternoon and evening they 
had spent with Mrs. Barrett’s daughters. Jack’s 
cousins, and some other young friends, when their 
attention was aroused by a sudden sharp cry for 
help, which came faintly from the dark recesses 
of a cross street. 

Although it was now going on toward ten o’clock 
at night Front Street was yet fairly well lighted, 
even though there were but few people to be seen 
abroad at that late hour. The cross street, how- 
ever, was as black as pitch. The locality was one 
of the most dangerous in New York. It abounded 
with thieves, thugs, and blackguards; it was filled 
with sailors’ boarding-houses, drinking dens, and 
evil resorts of the very lowest character, like the 
sea or river front of every large city of the time. 
So long as the boys kept to Front Street, however, 
they were safe enough, but dangers of all kinds 
lurked in the darkness back of the river front. 


8 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


If they had been older and wiser they might have 
passed on about their business, disregarding the 
appeal, but a cry for help was a thing that neither 
of them could then have withstood, and by a com- 
mon impulse they stopped and peered up the street 
whence the clamour had come. 

“ Did you hear it. Bob? ” whispered Barrett. 

“ Aye,” returned the other, ‘‘ some one cried 
‘ Help.’ ” 

“ Listen I ” said Jack. 

The two boys waited a moment but they could 
hear nothing. 

“Can you see anything?” asked Bob at last, 
peering up the black way. 

“ Not a thing. Let’s go and see what’s up.” 

“ All right,” assented Dashaway promptly, 
while his hand went round to the back of his belt 
where a small derringer pistol hung under his short 
jacket. 

They had no business to be carrying pistols, but 
in the end it proved fortunate that they did, for 
Barrett was similarly armed. Thereupon the two 
lads, drawing their weapons, ran rapidly up the 
street. They ran lightly, too, as boys naturally 


TREASURE HUNTER 


9 


would, but still their footfalls made some noise on 
the rough pavement. They had gone perhaps a 
block and a half when they came to the mouth of 
an alley running parallel to Front Street and at 
right angles to the way they had come. 

A few feet from the corner a dim oil lamp 
hung in a recessed doorway. By its light a striking 
situation was revealed. A man was lying in the 
alley on his back, another man on his knees bent 
over him. The uppermost man had the prostrate 
one by the throat ; he was choking and beating him 
savagely. 

“ Hi ! ” called out Dashaway impetuously. 
“ Let that man alone.” 

The man who had the upper hand at this re- 
leased the other, and sprang to his feet hastily, 
apparently in great alarm. He saw two figures 
rapidly approaching him, looming large in the 
mysterious darkness, and he instantly turned and 
fled, like the coward he was. It was useless to 
pursue him. The two boys, therefore, stopped 
by the prostrate figure of the other man. The 
light was dim, to be sure, but it was bright enough 
for them to see that the man’s face was covered 


lO 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


with blood. He was gasping for breath, and his 
eyes were rolling. The two youngsters bent over 
him anxiously. 

“ Jiminy ! ” exclaimed Barrett. “ He has been 
treated horribly.” 

He whipped out his handkerchief and wiped off 
the blood on the man’s face. There was a little 
pool of water in the gutter, it had rained earlier 
in the evening, and Dashaway in turn dipped his 
own handkerchief therein and also bathed the man’s 
brow. 

As they stood musing over him uncertainly, not 
knowing what to do next, the man revived a little, 
and spoke feebly and with a great effort. 

“ The pocket — ^of my — shirt,” he whispered. 
“ He tried to — rob me.” 

“ Yes,” said Bob eagerly, “ we frightened him 
away. Are you hurt?” 

“ He cut me — with a knife — in the shoulder,” 
gasped the man. 

“ Shall we call a constable, some one to help? ” 
asked Bob. 

“ No, I am about done for, I guess. — Who be 
ye?” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


II 


“We are midshipmen of the ship Young Amef’ 
icaHy bound for the East Indies and the China 
seas.” 


“ You take it,” faltered the man. “ I’d rather 
anybody had it — than that claw-fingered — devil.” 

“ Take what? ” asked Bob. 

“ In the pocket — of my shirt.” 

“ See what he has got there, Jack,” said Dash- 
away, laving the man’s face again with his wet 
handkerchief. 

A few minutes’ rapid search in the dark, and 
Barrett found and drew from the pocket of the 
man’s flannel shirt a small packet wrapped in oil 
skins and securely tied. 

“ It’ll tell you — where to git it,” said the man 
with a great effort. 

“ Get what? ” asked Dashaway. 

“ The treasure,” he gasped out weakly, and then 
lapsed into unconsciousness, having lost much blood 
in the fray. 

“ Great Christmas ! ” exclaimed Barrett in great 
dismay. “ He’s?gone sure ! What’ll we do with 
him, Bob?” 

“I don’t knovf; we can’t leave him here, and 


12 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


he may not be dead, you know,” answered Dash- 
away dubiously. 

“ I hope not.” 

“ Stow away that packet anyway, and then we’ll 
decide what is to be done,” suggested Dashaway. 

“ You take it. Bob,” returned Barrett, “ your 
jacket pocket is deeper than mine, and the flap has 
a button on it.” 

“ All right,” said the other, safely tucking away 
the packet, “ now for the man.” 

But what to do with the prostrate, senseless 
man was indeed a puzzle. He was a big, strap- 
ping fellow, and the two youngsters unaided could 
not have carried him even as far as Front Street. 

“ Maybe this is where he lives,” Barrett ven- 
tured at last, looking toward the dimly lighted 
doorway. 

“ I guess we will have to knock and find out,” 
assented Bob. 

“ That’ll be the best thing to try,” was the 
answer. 

Accordingly, Dashaway stepped to the door, 
lifted his pistol by the barrel, and prepared to 
hammer on the panels with the butt, when a soft. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


13 

insinuating voice out of the darkness interrupted 
him. 

“ Kin I be of any sarvice, young gents? ” asked 
the newcomer, approaching the group. 

“ Yes, you can,” answered Dashaway promptly, 
glad at the arrival of a full-grown man, “ there’s 
a man here that’s been stabbed, maybe he’s dead, 
and we don’t know what to do with him.” 

“ Lemme have a look at him,” said the other, 
bending over. “ Well, if ’tain’t my old friend 
an’ shipmate. Jack Buntlin,” he remarked in well 
simulated surprise. “ Have you young gents been 
tryin’ to murder up my old shipmate this way? ” 

He spoke severely as he straightened up again, 
his forehead beetling, his eyes flashing. 

“ No,” replied Bob, “ we haven’t tried to mur- 
der any one; on the contrary, we saved his life; 
some one had him by the throat and was beating 
him when we came upon him.” 

“ And how, I make bold to arsk, did you young 
gents happen to be a-passin’ by yere? ” 

“ We were down on Front Street going to re- 
join our ship when we heard a cry for help, and 
we ran up here to see what was the matter.” 


14 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ An’ mighty brave it was of ye,” said the new- 
comer admiringly. “ Don’t never pay to interfere 
between gents a-settlin’ their private quarrels in 
these yere latitoods, ’specially in this watch o’ the 
night. There’s blood on your hands,” he burst 
out suddenly. “ I believe ye done it yourselves ! 
You come along with me.” He leaned forward 
as he spoke and made a grab at Jack Barrett. 
“ I’ll take ye to the constable.” 

“None of that!” said Barrett, whipping out 
his pistol and pointing it fairly at the man. 

“ Right O, Jack,” cried Bob, dding the same 
thing with his firearm. “We are honest boys,” 
he said to the stranger, “ and we have told you 
the exact truth. Don’t you try any games with 
us!” 

“ Lord love ye,” laughed the man, confronted 
by the two weapons, which he noticed were held 
steadily in spite of the youth of those who had 
drawn them. “ I was only doin’ it to try ye. I 
knowed Jack Buntlin was bound to git into trouble 
sooner nor later. He had somethin’ that was 
wanted mighty bad, ye see.” 

The packet instantly flashed into the minds of 


TREASURE HUNTER 


15 


both lads, but they very wisely said nothing. The 
newcomer next bent down and made a quick yet 
careful search of the prostrate man. He whipped 
off his own neckerchief, and by skilfully bandaging 
the deep wound in the man’s shoulder succeeded 
in staunching the flow of blood. He also rapidly 
felt in the pocket of his shirt and jacket for the 
missing packet, and growled out a muttered oath 
of disappointment at finding nothing. The boys 
watched him in silence. 

“ Now he’ll do for a while,” said the man at 
last. 

“Is he dead?” 

“ No, an’ if you young gents will help me to 
carry him around to his boardin’-house, I guess 
we kin take care of him all right.” 

‘Hs it far?” 

“ Not very, jest up this alley about a cable’s 
len’th, an’ then down the cross street a couple of 
doors this side of Front Street. An’ if you’ll jine 
me in a tot o’ grog to wet your whistle, w’en we 
gits there, you’ll do me proud, sirs.” 

“ We don’t drink,” answered Bob sturdily, “ but 
we’ll help you with the man, of course.” 


CHAPTER II 


IN “ THE RUNNING BOWLINE ” TAVERN 

The newcomer took the head and shoulders of 
his prostrate friend, the two boys each one of the 
legs, and together they staggered slowly up the 
alley until they came to the proper cross street. 
Their progress was very deliberate, for the 
wounded man was large and heavy. They met 
no one on the way, and at last their long and 
arduous journey ended before the door of a large 
public house, or tavern, just off of Front Street. 
An old sign swinging and creaking in the night 
wind proclaimed the fact that the name of the 
place was “ The Running Bowline.” If the boys 
had but known it, this was one of the lowest of 
the many sailors’ boarding-houses and evil drink- 
ing dens in the whole great city. 

Without any ceremony the man butted the door 
open with his back and shoulders, and the little 
party, still bearing their burden, entered the tap- 

i6 


BOB DASHAWAY 


17 


room. It was brightly lighted by flaring whale 
oil lamps, and was filled with sailors of all nation- 
alities in all stages of intoxication. Many were 
puffing away at short black pipes, and the thick, 
hot, noisome air was blue with tobacco smoke. 
The occupants greeted the newcomers in noisy 
fashion with a great uproar. 

“ What’s the matter? ” growled a rough-voiced 
man presiding over a well-stocked bar at the further 
end as he became aware of the sudden excitement. 
‘‘ Who comes here? ” 

‘‘ Jack Buntlin, yere,” answered the newcomer, 
raising his voice to make himself heard above the 
tumult, “ has got hisself cut up in a street fight, 
an’ these young gents an’ me have brought him 
yere.” 

“ Oh, it’s you, is it, Clawfinger? ” 

“ Aye, it’s me right enough, matey. What’ll 
we do with Jack, yere?” answered the man with 
this peculiar name. 

“ Take him into one of the back rooms yonder 
and throw him on a bed,” growled the boarding- 
house master indifferently. “ We’ll git a sawbones 
for him somewheres.” 


i8 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


Now Bob and Jack, who had been somewhat 
confused at first by the smoke and light and noise, 
realised at last what sort of a place they were in. 
They made up their minds to get out of it as 
soon as possible, but as nobody offered to assist 
the newcomer with the strange name in carrying 
the wounded man, who was still breathing, they 
thought it only proper and right to see him safely 
bestowed on his bed before they broke away. Ac- 
cordingly, bearing the senseless man as before, they 
slowly made their way through the crowd of 
drunken, jeering, leering sailors, one of whom 
opened a door at the far end of the room which 
gave access to a long hall, on either side of which 
were a number of filthy little bedrooms. 

Master Clawfinger, if that were his name, 
promptly turned toward the first one, which was 
only separated from the bar and the big room by 
a thin wooden partition. He pushed open the 
door with his foot. They carried the wounded 
man into the horribly uninviting room, and pitched 
him down heavily upon a ramshackle, dirty 
bed. 

“ Now that’s done,” said he, “ I’ll git a sea 


TREASURE HUNTER 


19 

sawbones in the mornin’ to look arter him, an’ 
he’ll bring him to all right.” 

“Will he die, d’ye think?” asked Bob. 

“ Not much,” was the prompt answer. “ See 
yere ” — he pulled out a flask of whiskey from the 
pocket of his short jacket, and forcing the man’s 
lips open, poured a little of the fiery liquor down 
his throat. “ That’ll restore him,” he added. 
“ We kin leave him now.” 

“ Good-night, then,” said Bob, turning away. 

“ I hope your friend will be all right soon,” 
politely added Jack, following his companion. 

“ Well, I’m much obleeged to both of ye young 
gents,” answered the other, “ an’ I’d feel honoured 
if youM wet your whistles at my expense out yon- 
der.” 

“ Thank you,” said Bob courteously, “ but it 
is very late, besides we don’t drink and we have 
got to get back to our ship.” 

“ I’d take it kindly if you’d honour me,” per- 
sisted the man earnestly, coming closer and smiling 
ingratiatingly at the two youngsters. 

“ No,” answered Barrett abruptly. “ Come, 
Bob.” 


20 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


The two boys turned and walked rapidly down 
the corridor toward the door, closely followed by 
their new acquaintance. Their second entrance 
into the big room was a signal for another outburst 
of brutal gibes and savage uproar. They found 
their way out to the street barred by a mass of 
men who staggered to their feet bent upon having 
some rough sport with the trim, neatly dressed, 
clean, bright-looking lads. 

“ Not yet, my little hearties ! ’’ drunkenly cried 
out the most savage and burly of them all. 

“ I’ve arsked these young gents to have a tot o’ 
grog with me,” said their whilom companion, “ but 
they don’t drink, they sez.” 

“What!” cried another. “Be they milk-fed 
sailormen? ” 

“ I never saw two likely lads like them as 
couldn’t take their likker straight like men,” urged 
a second. 

“ Here 1 ” hiccoughed a third, proffering a full 
cup to the two youngsters. “ Drain this, lads.” 

Barrett was a cooler boy than Dashaway; he 
saw the latter’s eye flash, and he laid his hand on 
his friend’s arm. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


21 


“ Steady, Bob,” he whispered, but Dashaway 
was not to be denied. 

With a quick movement of his fist he struck the 
cup from the sailor’s unsteady hand. The tin pan- 
nikin spun high in the air above the crowd, the 
fiery liquor it contained showering the nearest 
man. 

“ Well, if that ain’t the worst way to treat good 
spirits,” cried the angry man, lifting his hand 
threateningly and lunging at the boy. 

The next instant Bob struck him full in the 
face with all his force. Another second he and 
Jack had their pistols out, for when the battle was 
actually begun Barrett proved just as quick as 
Dashaway. 

“ Gangway, you rowdies ! ” roared Bob. 

Both boys made a mad plunge toward the door. 
One or two of the men in front gave back a little, 
but there were too many of them to be intimidated 
by two small boys, even though they were armed. 
There was a brief scuffle terminating in a sharp 
struggle. In the midst of the uproar the two 
pistols cracked, and two men went down, neither 
of them very badly hurt, but when the fracas was 


22 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


over, Bob and Jack, covered with blood, were lying 
senseless on the floor. 

Now that it was all over, some of the men ap- 
peared to be somewhat ashamed and slightly fright- 
ened as well. The boarding-house master was 
furious. 

“ What’s to be done now? ” he growled in rage. 
“Why didn’t you let them youngsters alone? 
They’ll come to and report us to the justices, the 
constables will raid the house, and there’ll be the 
devil to pay.” 

“ Why don’t you ship ’em off on the Betsey? 
She wants some more hands,” cried the curious 
man who had brought them there. “ You could 
make ’em swaller some drugged whiskey now, 
afore they come to, an’ when they opened their 
eyes again, they’d be at sea. She sails at day- 
break in the mornin’.” 

“ That’s a good idea, Clawfinger,” remarked 
the boarding-house master. “ Here, some of you 
lubbers fetch me that bottle over there.” 

He pointed to a well-known black flagon be- 
hind the bar, and willing hands soon placed it 
in his own. He poured a little of it down the 


TREASURE HUNTER 


23 


mouths of the boys, who were just beginning to 
recover consciousness, and in spite of their resist- 
ance, which was feeble enough in all conscience in 
view of their condition, forced them to drink a 
sufficient quantity of it for his wicked purposes. 

He had the satisfaction of seeing that they in- 
stantly lapsed into complete unconsciousness 
again, and this time he knew that it would be 
lasting. 

“ Now the rest of you clear out,” said the board- 
ing-house master when he had at last finished his 
task. “ It’s late and you’ll get no more liquor 
here to-night.” 

The other sailors were now more than willing 
to leave the place; some of them went back to 
the rooms they had rented in the rear of the build- 
ing, while others staggered out through the front 
door into the street, seeking various places of evil 
resort in which to make a night of it. In a short 
space the only man left in the room with the 
boarding-house master was the man who had 
brought the boys there. 

“ Don’t I git nothin’ out of this? ” he demanded 
as the two men faced each other. 


24 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Didn’t you git that packet from Jack Bunt- 
lin?” 

“ No,” answered the man savagely, “ I felt for 
it in the pocket of his shirt while I was liftin’ him 
up, an’ it was gone.” 

“Gone where?” 

“ Black Jake must ha’ knocked him down an’ 
stabbed him accordin’ to the plan,” answered the 
man, “ an’ I make no doubt he got it.” 

“ How did them boys git mixed up in it? ” 

“ They heerd a cry for help an’ come runnin’ 
up the street to see wot it was. They drove away 
Jake, but evidently not afore he’d got wot he 
wanted.” 

“ You’re playing in hard luck, ain’t ye ! ” sneered 
the man. 

“ I am.” 

“ And you’ll git no treasure this time, will ye? ” 

“ I’ll git that chart away from Jake if I have 
to kill him,” the man ground out the words wrath- 
fully between his teeth. “ He got it away from 
Buntlin, an’ there won’t be no trouble about my 
overhaulin’ him.” 

“ And the money I lent you for which I was 


TREASURE HUNTER 


25 

going to git a look at the map and a share of the 
treasure, how about that?” mocked the other. 

“ I tell ye, you’ll git it in time,” snapped out 
Clawfinger angrily. “ Say, Joe, gimme a draught 
o’ rum. I’m that dry I feel like a deesart island,” 
he continued in a milder tone. 

“ All right,” answered the boarding-house mas- 
ter, turning away with an evil smile the other man 
could not see. 

He went to the bar, ostentatiously reached for a 
bottle, cleverly substituted for it the black one 
out of which he had already given the boys a 
draught, poured a full drink into a tin cup, and 
handed it to the man. Clawfinger tossed it off 
without winking, as if it had been water, and then 
he shuddered violently. 

“ Here! ” he shouted fiercely, his face crimson- 
ing. “What’s the matter with that drink? 
You’ve played me false!” He hesitated, stag- 
gered, reeled, clapped his hands to his head. 
“ Drugged ! ” he added thickly. “ D — n you. I’ll 
get even with ” 

He suddenly collapsed into the nearest chair, his 
body lurched forward, his face fell on his hands 


26 


BOB DASHAWAY 


on the table. He was as unconscious as the two 
boys on the floor. The boarding-house master 
laughed. 

“ I’ll git some of my money back right now,” 
he said to himself, “ without waiting for no imagi- 
nary island. An’ I’ll git rid of a troublesome 
customer, too. He knows too much already; I 
don’t want him spying around me. The Betsey 
wants more than two hands; the boys are rather 
small, but I guess they’ll have to pass. Here, 
Sambo! ” He raised his voice and a negro ap- 
peared. “ Git two or three of the blacks,” he 
directed, “ and carry these cattle down to the pier. 
They’re for the Betsey, she leaves with the ebb at 
four o’clock in the morning. I’ll be down to take 
them off in the boat in a short time.” 


CHAPTER III 


COMMODORE HARKNESS ON THE TRAIL 

Promptly on the stroke of five bells, or at half- 
past ten o’clock that night, Commodore Harkness 
came out of his cabin to the quarter-deck. Per- 
functorily acknowledging the salute of the ofiicer 
of the watch, he stepped forward to the starboard 
gangway, and silently and anxiously peered across 
the water toward the dimly lighted town. 

People went to bed earlier in those days than 
now, and save for an occasional street lantern, the 
opposite shore was quite dark. He waited in the 
gangway a short time impatiently enough — like 
almost all veteran commanding officers of ships he 
did not at all enjoy waiting for anybody, espe- 
cially for subordinates! — until the bell forward 
struck six, and still there were no signs of the re- 
turn of the dinghy with the two boys. 

Now he knew these youngsters thoroughly; they 
were as reliable a pair of “ middies ” as were to 


27 


28 BOB DASHA WAY, 

be found on the ocean. The old commodore was 
perfectly certain that they would not wilfully have 
disobeyed his positive command to be on the ship 
not later than half after ten. It was inconceivable 
that they should have decided to remain over night 
with Jack Barrett’s aunt, especially without notify- 
ing him and receiving his permission. He argued, 
therefore, that something must have happened to 
them. It was a disquieting thought. One of the 
boys was his nephew and both were very dear to 
him. 

Instead of sending a lieutenant to look for them, 
he did a somewhat unusual thing: he directed the 
officer of the watch to rout out the crew of his 
own gig, which was swinging astern, and he pre- 
pared to go ashore and look for them himself I 
The anchor watch forward was ordered to go be- 
low and awaken the gig men, without unnecessarily 
disturbing the other men of the sleeping crew; 
meanwhile the commodore returned to his cabin, 
dropped a well-filled purse into his pocket, buckled 
on his sword, and thrust a brace of pistols into 
his belt, covering all with a light boat coat. The 
armorer was awakened also, and as the gig’s crew 


TREASURE HUNTER 


29 

came tumbling aft, pistols and cutlasses were served 
out to them. 

The New York water front was a dangerous 
place to be abroad in at night It was best to go 
armed and prepared for any peril. The commo- 
dore was not given to foreboding, but it seemed 
to him that something serious must have occurred, 
and his anxiety was most unaccountably growing 
with every passing moment. 

The gig was soon lowered away and drawn 
abreast the starboard gangway, whereupon the 
commodore took his place in the stern sheets, seiz- 
ing the tiller himself. At his command the men 
gave way, and the little boat moved rapidly from 
the side of the ship into the blackness of the night 
and the river. 

It was quite a pull to, the distant shore, and on 
the way they approached what appeared to be a 
clumsy, rude, and badly steered shore boat. The 
commodore determined to hail this boat on the 
faint possibility that it might contain the boys. 

“ Boat ahoy! ” he cried sharply, adding in the 
same breath, “ Oars 1 ” 

At this his crew stopped rowing and the gig 


30 BOB DASHA WAY, 

drifted on by the momentum it had already ac- 
quired. 

“ What is wanted? ” cried a gruff voice in reply 
out of the darkness. 

“What boat is that?” 

“ None of your blamed business,” answered the 
voice. “ Keep on pullin’, blast ye.” 

“ Answer my question,” thundered the commo- 
dore, “ or I will run you down.” 

The two boats were now side by side, and as 
the rowers in the shore boat had seen fit to dis- 
regard the orders of her commander and had 
stopped rowing, they were lying practically mo- 
tionless a few yards apart. 

“Well, who are you?” cried he of the gruff 
voice. 

“ I am the captain of the Young American yon- 
der. Now answer me and look sharp about it.” 

“ I don’t recognise no rights on your part to 
stop us, but if you must know, we’re a shore boat 
from ‘ The Running Bowline,’ with a shipment 
of men for the Betsey yonder down the river,” 
was the surly, grudging reply. 

“ Oh,” said the commodore, “ why didn’t you 


TREASURE HUNTER 


31 


say so at first. Give way, men ! ” And as the 
sturdy seamen of the Young American bent to their 
oars he called again to the other boat, which was 
already under way, “ You don’t happen to have 
seen anything of two young gentlemen belonging 
to my ship, have you? ” 

“ Not a thing,” was the instant reply. “ We’ve 
got some prime sailor men here for the Betsey, and 
if you would like us to fill out your crew, just re- 
member ‘ The Running Bowline,’ Cap’n.” 

To this the commodore made no answer except 
to remark savagely under his breath : 

“ I would rather sail my ship myself than to 
take any of the scum that comes from that 
hole.” 

He knew very well the reputation of that sailors’ 
boarding-house, which was notorious all over the 
world. The remainder of the passage to the 
wharf was made uneventfully. By the aid of the 
lantern which had been provided the commodore 
found the dinghy tied to the wharf, the two men 
of the crew and the coxswain dozing in the stern 
sheets. 

“ Have you seen or heard anything of Mr. 


32 BOB DASH A WAY, 

Dashaway or Mr. Barrett?” asked Harkness 
sharply. 

“ Haven’t seed or heerd a thing of neither of 
them young gents, anyw’ere’s, sir,” said old Bill 
Dethridge, who was in charge. 

“ Umph ! ” said the commodore. “ Dethridge, 
you come with me.” 

He detailed one of the crew of the gig to join 
the other men, and ordered them to take the dinghy 
back to the ship. The gig was made fast to the 
wharf, and followed by all but two men detailed 
as keepers, the commodore and Dethridge marched 
up the wharf toward Front Street. That march 
was easy, what to do next was something of a 
problem. 

The commodore reflected deeply for a moment 
or two. Two courses were open to him. He 
must first find a livery stable and rent a chaise, 
which he could despatch to the house of Jack 
Barrett’s aunt with the most intelligent of the sea- 
men, to find out when the boys had left. The 
next thing was to find a constable and ask if any 
report of any misfortune or mischance that might 
have come to the boys had been brought in. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


33 


It was not difficult to find a livery stable on one 
of the cross streets and to despatch a young seaman 
to Mrs. Barrett’s to find out when the boys had 
left, with orders to hurry back to the wharf and 
report as soon as possible. To find a watchman 
was harder, but at last they chanced on one, al- 
though to their great regret he could tell them 
nothing, except that he had no tidings of the boys 
whatsoever. 

All this had taken a great deal of time. The 
bells from the different ships in the harbour were 
striking eight, or midnight, when the commodore, 
who was getting more and more anxious, deter- 
mined upon the somewhat vain course of searching 
the streets on the very small chance that he might 
find something. 

He was a systematic, methodical sort of a man. 
He divided his party, comprising nine men with 
Dethridge and himself, into four groups of two 
each. He stationed himself near the wharf and 
instructed two of the groups thoroughly to search 
the cross streets, and the two other groups to 
search the streets that ran parallel to the river. 
He recognised, of course, the difficulty under 


34 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


which they would labour and the almost impossi- 
bility of their finding anything; still, there was a 
slim chance, and as the commodore was used to 
taking chances, he took that one. 

Lanterns had been procured from the stableman, 
and each party was provided with a light. Prom- 
ising a reward of a double eagle each to the first 
party which brought him any tangible news, the 
commodore sent them out, all being eager in the 
search. Bob and Jack were very popular with 
the men, and they needed no reward to stimulate 
them to action. 

About one o’clock the man who had been sent 
uptown appeared in the chaise with the announce- 
ment that the boys had left Madam Barrett’s about 
nine o’clock In a hired chaise, which had agreed 
to take them to the head of Water Front Street. 
The chaise had been called from a nearby livery, 
and the sailor had managed to find the driver, 
who had said that he had left them at Water 
Street shortly before, or about, ten o’clock. 

With growing anxiety and disquiet the commo- 
dore paced the wharf from time to time. One by 
one the search parties reported to him that they 


TREASURE HUNTER 


35 


had examined certain streets and found nothing. 
Just when he had begun to despair and had de- 
cided that nothing further could be done until 
morning, Bill Dethridge and his mate hove out 
of the darkness and rushed up to the commodore. 
They were panting with excitement. They had 
run so rapidly— and seamen are not naturally 
good runners — that they could scarcely speak. It 
was evident that they had found something. 

“ Well, well, what is it? ” asked the commodore 
in great impatience, as they stood breathing hard 
before him. 

“ This, sir,” panted Dethridge, extending some- 
thing white. 

“Show a light! ” cried Harkness imperatively. 

The next moment, by the light of the lantern 
held aloft by the other sailor, he took into his 
hands two handkerchiefs, wet, dirty, bedraggled, 
but covered with dark stains, which the commo- 
dore instantly decided were of blood! He exam- 
ined them carefully with tightening lips. Hand- 
kerchiefs were not the common articles of use in 
those days that they have since become, and it was 
rather a fad for the two boys to have carried them, 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


36 

but Madam Dashaway had kept abreast of the 
fashions and had provided each of the boys with 
a beautifully embroidered set. The commodore 
recognised them at once. It was certain evidence 
that something had happened to them, and Provi- 
dence had given him a clue. 

“Where did you find these, Dethrldge?” he 
asked In great agitation. 

“ About four streets to starboard, sir, two to 
port, and then half a street to port again.” 

By this time two of the other parties had re- 
ported, and as the bells on the ships chimed half- 
past two In the morning, Harkness bade the whole 
group follow him, directing Dethrldge to lead the 
way. 

The little party walked rapidly through the 
silent streets and finally stopped before the door- 
way, over which the lantern still burned dimly, 
where the handkerchiefs had been found. On 
their way they were joined by the remaining parties, 
and by the captain’s direction all the lantern light 
was thrown on the spot. 

The street was muddy, and evidences of some 
kind of a struggle were quite plain. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


37 

“ They have been here undoubtedly,” he said 
at last. 

“Aye, aye, sir!” answered Dethridge. “But 
it don’t seem to me that they have been on the 
ground. Here’s the outlines of where a man lay; 
it’s bigger’n both our young gents.” 

“ Aye,” assented the commodore. “ Perhaps 
the boys got him down — or — but there’s no use 
surmising. Examine the street, every foot of it 
hereabouts.” 

While the seamen obeyed, the captain turned 
toward the archway with the dim lantern over its 
door. Hauling out one of his pistols he beat on 
the heavy panel with the butt of it. Presently 
the casement of a window opened above his head 
and a night-capped head was thrust out. A 
woman’s voice quavered a question. 

“Who’s there?” 

“ I am Commodore Harkness of the ship Young 
American. I am looking for two of my midship- 
men, boys of sixteen. Have you seen anything of 
them?” 

The woman hesitated. 

“ Well, sir,” she answered dubiously, “ there 


38 BOB DASHA WAY, 

was a bit of a scuffle here in front of the house 
earlier in the night, but such things often happens 
hereabouts, and ” 

“ Were my lads in it? ” 

“ I think so, but if you will excuse me a minute, 
I will get dressed and come down.” 

“ Bear a hand then,” returned Harkness, “ while 
we delay they may be in great peril.” 

The groups searching the street had found noth- 
ing more, and while they were reporting to the 
captain, the door of the house, which was secured 
by a chain, was opened a few inches, and a lean 
old face peered through the crack. 

Harkness immediately stepped toward the open- 
ing. 

“ Would you mind giving me a look at your 
face, sir,” said the woman excitedly. 

“ Lights here ! ” cried the commodore, and as 
several were held aloft the mistress of the house 
had a good view of the officer. 

What she saw reassured her, for she dropped 
the chain, opened the door, and bade him enter. 
Requesting Dethridge to follow, and directing the 
rest to remain outside and in readiness for a call. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


39 

the commodore stepped within the room. With- 
out further ceremony he began: 

“ You say there was some kind of a scuffle, or 
fight, before your house to-night?” 

“ Yes, sir,” was the answer; “ what I heard was 
a cry for help. I was sleeping in the upper room. 
I am a poor widow and live alone in the house. 
Behind the shutters yonder is a small store where 
I sell things to make a livelihood.” 

“ Yes, yes,” said the commodore. “ You heard 
a cry for help; what did you then?” 

‘‘ I got up and looked through the slats of the 
shutter at the street.” 

“ And what did you see? ” 

“ Two men were struggling in the gutter before 
the door. One of them struck the other. I saw 
the flash of a knife in the dim light, then they both 
went down, but the man underneath kept up the 
fight.” 

Did you call the watch?” 

“ I was that scared and frightened I couldn’t 
speak, sir, and while I was trying to think of what 
to do, two other people came running down the 
street. I was so excited I couldn’t tell just exactly 


40 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


what happened, but the man on top ran away. 
The two who came, who seemed to be boys or men 
of slight build, worked with the man that was down 
until they were joined by a third man. Then 
after talking some, and I couldn’t hear what they 
said, they picked up the body, the third man tak- 
ing the head and shoulders, and the two others 
the legs, and went down the street with it.” 

“What time was this?” 

“ It was a little after ten o’clock, as near as I 
can judge, sir. I went to bed as the clocks were 
striking nine, and I think I had been in bed about 
an hour. I hadn’t been to sleep, for worrying, 
and ” 

“ Could you identify either of the people that 
you saw? ” 

“ One,” answered the woman promptly. 

“Which one?” asked the commodore. 

“ The man who came last, who carried the head 
and shoulders of the dead or dying man away.” 

“ And how could you identify him, ma’am? ” 

“ Because he stopped just under the light that 
hangs from the door and raised his hand to brush 
the sweat off of his brow.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


41 


Did you see his face?” 

“ I saw his hand.” 

“ And what was peculiar about that? ” 

“ It only had a thumb and two fingers. The 
two first fingers were grown together into one, and 
the two other fingers were grown together in the 
same way, but the first of these fingers was a great 
big powerful claw, like a vulture’s, and the second 
was a little shrivelled up finger that didn’t look as 
if it were any good to him.” 

“And that’s all you can tell me?” asked the 
commodore. 

“ Every word.” 

“ What is your name? ” 

“ Greenlee, sir,” answered the woman. 

“ I may want you to give evidence about this 
in court to-morrow morning,” returned Harkness. 
“ Here’s a little something I beg you to accept for 
your trouble, ma’am.” 

He laid a five-dollar gold piece on the table, 
saluted the woman gravely, and while she was pro- 
fusely thanking him, turned and hurried out into 
the night. 


42 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


“What did you make of it, Dethridge?” he 
said as they came into the street. 

“ Two drunken sailormen in a fight, sir. One 
of ’em cries for help, our young gents hears ’em, 
an’ like a pair of gallant young fools, savin’ your 
honour’s presence, they bears away to help him. 
They frightens away the man on top, and the 
man with the claw finger happens to come along; 
they’ve took him away some place to get doctored 
up, an’ ” The old seaman paused. 

“ And what then? ” 

“ God only knows, sir,” was the seaman’s an- 
swer. 

“ Where could they have taken him ? ” said 
Harkness reflectively. “ There’d be no places 
around here but sailors’ boarding-houses and 
crimps, and I wouldn’t give much for their chance 
in a place like that,” continued the commo- 
dore. “ Come, we can’t find out anything 
further here; the woman said they went that 
way.” 

He had started down the street, followed by the 
men. His purpose was to make enquiries of every 
sailors’ lodging house with which the district 


TREASURE HUNTER 


43 


abounded. There were numbers of them, but in 
the absence of any indication, the only possible 
way was to go from one to another until they came 
upon that they sought. 


CHAPTER IV 


OLD DETHRIDGE GETS THE INFORMATION 

It was broad daylight when the old commodore 
and his band of thoroughly tired sailors turned into 
a certain street and stopped before the door of 
“ The Running Bowline.” A rude picture of the 
famous knot itself was seen beneath the lettering 
on the swinging sign-board that declared the place 
to be a true sailor’s haven — save the mark ! Most 
of the other boarding-houses and seamen’s refuges 
the commodore had examined had been wide open ; 
the night was their period of greatest activity as a 
rule, but in this last case the windows were shut- 
tered and barred, the door was closed and locked, 
and there was no evidence of life about the place. 

Now there was nothing to connect “ The Run- 
ning Bowline ” with the disapperance of his be- 
loved boys, and yet somehow, as the old veteran 
stood there before the shut door, he recalled meet- 
ing the shore boat the night before on the waters, 


44 


BOB DASHA WAY 


45 

and he recollected the name. At once there 
jumped into his active mind a suspicion that there 
might be a solution of the mystery. As a matter 
of fact, “ The Running Bowline ” was about the 
last resort he could examine, since all the others 
had been visited, and failing there he would be 
at his wit’s end to know what to do. Old Bill 
Dethridge evidently had something of the same 
kind of a thought, for as they drew near he re- 
marked deferentially: 

“ Seems to me, yer honour, that we’re goin’ to 
hear somethin’ from yonder hole.” 

I hope so, I think so,” was the answer. 

The commodore was usually a reticent man, but 
he felt some need of counsel and discussion at this 
juncture, and he valued the shrewd opinion of the 
experienced old boatswain very highly. There- 
fore he spoke thus: 

“ Coming to the landing last night we passed a 
shore boat carrying a detail of men for an out- 
bound ship, the Betsey, and the man who steered 
her said she came from ‘ The Running Bowline.’ 
Could she have been carrying our boys, drugged, 
and ” 


46 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“God forbid, sir!” ejaculated Dethridge sol- 
emnly. 

“ But what do you think? ” 

“ It is barely possible, sir; in fact ” 

“Well! we’ll soon know! Arouse the house, 
men!” 

The eager sailors pounded on the door with 
their fists, at first evoking no reply, but repeated 
knocking and yelling, which presently aroused the 
neighbourhood, at last aroused the house. The 
door was opened a little, and the black face of a 
frightened negro peered out. Dethridge imme- 
diately thrust his knee hard against the door, only 
to find it was secured by a chain within. Although 
he could not open it further himself, the old man 
acted promptly. He shoved the pistol he had al- 
ready drawn into the face of the astonished negro, 
and ordered him to unloose the chain and open 
the door under pain of instant death. The fright- 
ened man tried at first to close the door, but the 
boatswain’s knee prevented, also Dethridge had 
seized his collar with his left hand as he repeated 
his demand for entrance. Being unable to escape 
the man finally undid the chain, and the door was 





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TREASURE HUNTER 


47 


pressed open. The commodore instantly stepped 
within, only to be confronted by a huge, red-faced, 
burly-looking man, who immediately assumed the 
high hand. 

“ What d’ye mean ! ” he roared. “ Breaking 
into a peaceful, law-abiding tavern in this way? 
I’ll have the law on you.” 

The commodore recognised the voice of the 
man, and was not in the least intimidated by his 
bluster. 

“ Ah ! my friend of the night before,” he re- 
marked quickly, and then he took a hand in the 
questioning himself. 

“ What did you do with those two boys that 
came to your house last night ? ” 

The attack was so sudden, so swift, so direct, 
it implied so accurate a knowledge of things he 
believed hidden, that the man, for all his assurance, 
was visibly perturbed. He went a little paler, but 
tried to carry it off with more bluster. 

“ I don’t know what you mean,” he growled. 
“ I ain’t seen no boys.” 

The old boatswain here showed his persuasive 
powers, for without orders he grasped the nearest 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


48 

negro by the neck, shoved his pistol under the 
man’s ears, and repeated the commodore’s question. 

The man was almost frightened white. 

“ Fo’ de lub o’ Gordl” he shrieked. “ Tek 
dat ah pistol away ! ” 

“What did you do with them young gents?” 
roared Dethridge. “ Speak, or I’ll blow your 
brains out ! ” 

The boarding-house keeper sprang forward, 
only to be confronted by two or three of the 
sailors, handling their pistols and anxious to break 
into the game at a word from their commander. 

The man blustered and roared; he made threats, 
he cursed and swore, but Dethridge never let go 
the negro, and the commodore seeing that things 
were working into his hands did not interfere. 
The man at last saw that nothing was to be gained 
by his endeavour to intimidate his visitors, and 
finally said, sulkily enough: 

“ Let the black go, and I’ll tell you what I 
know.” 

“ You will tell what you know without any 
conditions,” answered Harkness steadily, “ and 
you’d better be quick about it.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


49 


Well, if you must have it then,” answered the 
man, “ two boys did come over here last night 
with a friend. They had some liquor, and then 
went away, and that’s all I know about it.” 

“ That’s lie number one,” said the commodore 
calmly. “ The boys don’t drink, they have never 
learned.” 

“ They begun last night, then,” returned the 
man with an oath. 

“With whom did they go away?” 

“ With their friend.” 

“ Was it the man with three fingers instead of 
five, one of them a long claw? ” 

“ How did you know that? ” asked the man in 
great surprise. 

“And why did they come here at all?” con- 
tinued Harkness, pressing his advantage. 

“ How do I know; I don’t ask people that come 
here why they come, do I ? ” 

“ I can tell you why they came, sir,” said a 
weak voice. 

They all turned, and there in the doorway open- 
ing into the rear hall stood a big, athletic seaman, 
dressed in shirt and trousers, with a ragged, dirty 


50 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


bandage around his shoulder. He had been a 
powerful man evidently, but just then he was pale 
and looked frightfully wasted and ill. At the 
sight of him Dethridge started. 

“ My old shipmate, Buntlin I ” he cried. 

“ That’s me. Bill,” answered the man faintly, 
while the boarding-house master swore viciously. 

The newcomer wavered and trembled violently. 
At the commodore’s nod one of the sailors shoved 
a chair toward him upon which he sank down. 

“ Yer honour. I’m a sailor, sir, an old man-o’- 
war’s man,” he said, knuckling his forehead in 
true seaman fashion. 

“ Now what do you know about this? ” was the 
question. 

“ I was attacked in the street last night near. 
Widow Greenlee’s, where I was going to seek lodg- 
ing for the night.” 

“Ah, you were the victim, then?” said the 
commodore. 

“ Yes, sir. I could have taken care of myself 
easily enough, but I was stabbed from behind, an’ 
the man had me down when two youngsters, havin’ 
heerd my cry for help, drove him away. I had 


TREASURE HUNTER 


51 


only time for two or three words with them when 
I must have fainted from loss of blood. When I 
come to, I found myself here.” 

“ Did those boys bring him? ” asked the com- 
modore of the boarding-house master. 

“ Well, yes, they did,” the man admitted, seeing 
no help for it. 

“ They stowed me away in the room next to 
the inn parlour; there is only a thin board parti- 
tion between, as you can see,” went on Buntlin. 
“ After I come to, I heerd pretty much all that 
passed. The gang tried to force drink on the 
boys; they fought; I heerd pistol shots; they was 
knocked senseless, drugged, and put aboard some 
outwardbound ship.” 

“ Sink me I ” cried Dethridge, threateningly ad- 
vancing his weapon. 

The commodore’s face was livid with anger; 
he stepped forward and seized the boarding-house 
master by the throat. 

“ You dog« ” he cried, shaking him like a rat, 
and the huge man was quite helpless in the hands 
of the infuriated old officer. “ I ought to kill 
you where you stand! You talk about having the 


52 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


law on us; if you don’t go to jail for this my name 
is not Joshua Harkness. Go ! Some of you call 
the watch, bring the nearest constable. Now what 
ship did you put those lads on? ” 

But the accused man was speechless with terror. 
It was the negro that answered. 

“ De Betsey, suh.” 

“ What about her? ” 

“ She weighed anchor early dis mo’nin’ on a 
sealin’ v’yage to de Anta’tic, so dey said, suh.” 

“ Oh I for God’s sake, Cap’n I ” cried the board- 
ing-house master, finding his voice at last, “ will 
any money square this thing? ” 

“ Silence, you hound I ” roared the commodore. 
“ I’ll attend to you. There isn’t enough money in 
New York to pay me for those boys, and if a hair 
of their heads is hurt, as I live, you shall swing 
for it. Dethridge I ” 

“ Sir.” 

“ I leave you in command here ; when the con- 
stable comes, turn these men over to him for 
kidnapping. Say I’ll prefer charges against them 
in court when it opens this morning, and then re- 
port at the wharf.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


53 

“ An’ if I might make so bold, sir, as to ax you 
w’ere you’re goin’ now? ” 

“ You may. I am going to the harbour master. 
Probably I’ll have to go to his house and rout him 
out at this time of the morning to find out where 
the Betsey cleared for.” 

“ An’ wot then, sir? ” 

“ We’ll see that this man is dealt with as he de- 
serves by the law, and then we’ll hunt that ship 
down, by Heaven, through every water in the 
globe.” 

“ Three cheers for the old commodore! ” yelled 
one of the husky blue jackets, his sporting blood 
aroused by the bold proposition. 

“ Sir,” said the wounded man weakly, after the 
cheering had stopped, “ I’ve done you some little 
service, grant me a favour.” 

“ What is it? ” asked the commodore, reaching 
for his purse. 

“ Not that, sir,” protested the other, “ but there 
was a man here with a claw finger.” 

“ Aye I ” said the commodore. He turned to 
the boarding-house keeper. “ What became of 
him?” 


54 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


“ He went along with the boys,” was the surly 
answer. 

“ Drugged? ” 

“ Aye.” 

“ I’ve got a score to even up with him, sir,” 
continued Buntlin. “ Ship me aboard your vessel, 
yer honour.” 

“ But you are wounded.” 

“ ’Tain’t serious, I guess, sir,” answered the 
man, ‘‘ ’cept for the loss of blood. A few breaths 
o’ sea air will put me all right, an’ I got a score to 
pay that man.” 

“You are a sailorman?” asked the commo- 
dore. 

“Aye, sir; I’m an A. B. I was with Commo- 
dore Porter in the frigate Essex in the South Pacific 
when we fought the Phoebe and the Cherub. I 
was left behind, sir; I got a story to tell that it’ll 
be wuth your while to hear. There’s treasure ! ” 

“ I want no treasure but my boys,” said the 
commodore. 

“ Well, there’ll be nobody on your ship that’ll 
have more interest in huntin’ ’em down than I will.” 

“ I vouches for Jack Buntlin, yer honour,” in- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


55 


terposed Dethridge. “ He’s a sailorman, good 
an’ true, an’ has been shipmate with me afore the 
war.” 

“ Very good,” said the commodore, “ take him 
off to the Young American with you when you join 
the ship. See that he gets a shore doctor, a proper 
sawbones, to put him in shape before he goes, and 
if you can get any more information out of these 
dogs in my absence, you are fully authorised to 
get it.” 

“ Oh ! for God’s sake, sir,” cried the boarding- 
house master, don’t leave me to the mercy of 
this brutal old villain ! ” 

But he spoke to deaf ears. 

“ Villain, is it? ” said Dethridge, coming closer 
to him and staring him in the face. “ You’ll talk 
about me, will you ! ” he cried menacingly as he 
got the old ruffian by the throat. 

But the commodore did not stay to hear the 
rest. Hurry as he would, Harkness could not 
overcome the necessary delays, lay the information 
before the magistrate, give his testimony, get the 
boarding-house master on his way to prison, and 
get his clearance papers, which all had to be 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


56 

changed in view of the emergency, until a good 
twenty-four hours after the sailing of the Betsey^ 
which he learned was bound for Rio Janeiro, the 
River Plate ports, the Falkland Islands, and the 
seal rookeries in the South Shetlands far down 
below Cape Horn. In fact, the Young American 
was nearer thirty-six hours than twenty-four be- 
hind the Betsey, for the commodore was not ready 
to sail until late at night, and wind and tide did 
not permit him to get under way until late the 
following morning. 

The Betsey had the reputation of being a very 
fast ship, but Commodore Harkness had no fear 
but he could overhaul her at one place or the other, 
at Rio, at the Falklands, or finally in the Antarctic 
seas. He would rake the Antarctic Ocean as with 
a fine comb until he found her and got back his 
boys. He thanked God that he was rich enough 
to throw his trading plans to the winds and devote 
himself to the long stern chase which began when 
his eager crew dragged the anchor from its oozy 
bed and the ship, covered with new and snowy can- 
vas, glided rapidly down the bay, wind and tide 
urging her on. 


CHAPTER V 


INTO FRIENDLY HANDS ON THE “ BETSEY ” 

The wind was fresh and the ship was pitching 
heavily when two very desperately sick boys 
slowly awakened to semi-consciousness in the small, 
stuffy, ill-smelling forepeak of a strange ship. 

It was Bob Dashaway who first realised where 
he was. He had never felt so badly in his life, he 
thought, as he lay rolling about in the narrow bunk 
trying to get his bearings. All that had happened 
recently was a blank to him for the time being. 
He only knew that he had a splitting headache, 
that he was very sick at his stomach, and that he 
was on a ship. He realised, of course, that the 
ship was not that to which he rightfully belonged, 
but as to what ship she was and how he came there 
he was still in the dark. He lay rolling and fight- 
ing to get back his full consciousness, when a feeble 
hail from his friend who lay in the berth opposite 


57 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


58 

aroused his attention. Jack Barrett was also slowly 
gaining consciousness. The two boys rose on their 
elbows and stared at each other. 

“ Bob I ” exclaimed Jack ruefully. 

“Jack! ” answered Bob in the same tone. 

“ How did we get here? ” 

“Blest if I know! Let me think; I have it 
now.” 

“What was it?” 

“ Why, at that sailors’ boarding-house.” 

“ ‘ The Running Bowline ’ ? ” 

“ That’s it.” 

“The man that was stabbed, you know?” 

“ Yes, I remember, the man with the crooked 
finger.” 

“ He is yere with you, gents,” said a deep but 
very disgusted voice from a bunk forward. 

“ What! ” exclaimed both at once, “ you, too? ” 

“ At your sarvice, gents. Oh ! ain’t this ” 

growled the seaman, reaching out his hand, and 
as the sunlight from the open hatchway fell upon 
it both boys were startled to observe again its 
curious malformation — the huge, fierce, strong 
talon that matched the massive thumb, and the 


TREASURE HUNTER 


59 

weak little claw, where the third and fourth fingers 
would be. 

The sailor dragged himself out of the bunk, and 
stood uncertainly on his feet in the forepeak. He 
opened his mouth, and such a torrent of oaths and 
curses burst from it as the youngsters had never 
heard. The effect of it was, that if he ever got 
his claw on the neck of that boarding-house master, 
he would choke him to death. In the meantime, 
he invoked every other penalty that an extensive 
sea vocabulary of profanity could formulate upon 
his head. 

As soon as he could make himself heard. Bob 
interposed. 

“ Belay that cursing,” he cried peremptorily, 
‘‘ weVe heard enough of it.” 

‘‘ Belayed it is, sir,” answered the man, coming 
at last to a full stop, perhaps as much for lack of 
breath as anything else. 

“ The point of the business now is, where we are, 
and how we will get away?” continued the boy, 
fighting against dizziness, headache, and nausea. 

“ I guess I can throw some light on it,” said the 
man with the claw finger. “ We’ve been drugged. 


6o BOB DASHA WAY, 

kidnapped, and put aboard some outward bound 
ship.’’ 

“ What ship, and where bound? ” asked Barrett. 

“ We’ll soon find that out by goin’ on deck and 
givin’ play to our jaw tackle.” 

“ Well, how came you to be here? ” asked Bob. 

“ You remember helpin’ me bring Jack Buntlin 
to ‘ The Running Bowline ’ ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Aye, we remember that,” said Bob. 

“ Well, the sailors tried to make you drink in 
the taproom. You put up a stiff fight, you two, 
with your little barkers, and I jined in to help 
you, bein’ as how you was my guests, so to speak, 
an’ we all three got knocked over together. Then 
when they laid us out, I guess they poured some 
drugged whiskey down us, an’ here we are.” 

“ Well, we are awfully sorry,” said Barrett, 
“ that you got into trouble helping us.” 

“ I’d do anything for a shipmate,” protested he 
of the claw finger glibly, “ an’ you got into trouble 
helpin’ my old friend Jack Buntlin.” 

“ I see,” said Bob Dashaway, “ and who was 
it that cut up this Buntlin friend of yours? ” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


6i 


“ A half-breed named Black Jake, I take it; you 
see, Jack Buntlin had — a certain — er — packet that 
was wanted mighty bad.” 

“What sort of a packet?” asked Jack Bar- 
rett. 

“ Why it was a map an’ some directions.” 

“ What kind of a map? ” 

“ A chart of an island.” 

“ Well, what made it valuable? ” 

“ There’s a treasure ship stranded there.” 

“ Great Christmas! you don’t mean it! ” 

“ Yes, I do mean it.” 

“ Spanish? ” asked Bob at this juncture. 

“ No, English,” was the answer. 

“ And this Black Jake got the map, you think,” 
continued Dashaway. 

“ Sartin ! ” the sailor ground out with a curse 
as he made the admission. “ Meanwhile, here I 
am,” he added wrathfully, “ bound out for God 
knows where, an’ him roamin’ around with that 
there treasure chart.” 

Just as Jack Barrett opened his mouth to speak, 
a gruff voice came down through the open hatch- 
way. 


62 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Below, there ! ’’ growled the man, whose head 
they could see over the combing. ‘‘ From the 
sound of you, you’re awake. Break out on deck 
here and turn to, and bear a hand about it. We 
are short-handed as it is, and this is no place for 
gamming.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” answered the old sailor. 
“ Come along, my little hearties. We’re in fer 
it,” he said under his breath, “ we can’t git out 
of it, an’ we might as well make the best of it until 
we gits to port or gits a chance to desart.” 

He sprang up the ladder that led to the deck, 
and presently, followed by the two boys, stepped 
over the hatch combing and into the light. 

It was late in the afternoon evidently from the 
altitude of the sun. The three found themselves 
on the flush deck of a large well-found, well- 
rigged ship. They had not much time to take in 
her fine points, however, for the mate who had 
called them immediately opened his batteries upon 
them. 

“Great Jehosaphat!” he cried in deep dis- 
gust. “ What have we got here ? That scoundrel 
promises us three able seamen and he sends us ” — 


TREASURE HUNTER 


63 

his eye fell on the maimed hand of the claw-fingered 
one — “ he sends us a vulture and a pair of doves.” 
His glance took in the smart, gold-braided, brass- 
buttoned jackets of the two boys, for Commodore 
Harkness had invested them in a quasi naval uni- 
form. “ Brass Bounders ! ” he bellowed in great 
wrath, and spat disgustedly over the side. 

The hands of the man who had been likened to 
a vulture twitched viciously. He lifted his maimed 
member menacingly. 

“ You’ll find out, sir,” said he, with a black look 
at the officer, with scarcely veiled insolence in his 
voice and bearing, ‘‘ that at passin’ a weather 
earrin’ this yere claw of mine is equal to any ten 
fingers you ever seed, an’ ” 

“ Belay that, you ! ” roared the mate threaten- 
ingly, taking a step toward the man who faced 
him resolutely enough. 

“ I ain’t signed no articles for this v’yage as 
yet,” he answered. “ I’m a free an’ law-abidin’ 
American citizen, I am, an’ I demand to be set 
ashore.” 

The mate laughed. 

“ Articles or no articles, you are entered as one 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


64 

of the crew of the ship Betsey, and while you are 
aboard you will obey orders and do your duty like 
the rest, or ” 

He snatched a belaying pin from the fore pinrail 
and lifted it threateningly as Clawfinger backed 
away from him. 

“ I beg your pardon, sir,’’ said Dashaway, re- 
spectfully enough, “ but we are midshipmen at- 
tached to the Young American of the Harkness- 
Dashaway line. We have been drugged and kid- 
napped aboard this ship, and we demand to be set 
ashore. Commodore Harkness, who owns the line 
and commands the Young American, is my uncle. 
My name is Bob Dashaway, and this is my friend 
and shipmate. Jack Barrett.” 

“ So you want to be set ashore, too, do you?” 
laughed the mate sarcastically. “ Why, certainly, 
all we’ve got to do is to put the ship about, I sup- 
pose, and beat back to New York harbour, and 
put you aboard the Young American with our 
humble apologies. We are perfectly willing to do 
that, of course. That’s a common practice among 
shipmasters. We have nothing on earth to do 
but to sail around in this ’ere Atlantic Ocean to 


TREASURE HUNTER 65 

oblige a couple of innocent babes in arms like you 
be.” 

The man’s sarcasm was plainly evident. Bob’s 
face flushed. 

“ Commodore Harkness is perfectly able to pay 
you for your trouble and delay, and I pledge you 
my word that he will.” 

“ Word of a sucklin’ dove like you? ” 

‘‘ Look here ! ” growled Barrett, who was slower 
to anger but equally as resolute as his friend, 
“ don’t you talk that way to us.” 

“ Maybe you don’t know what you are,” laughed 
the mate, who seemed to enjoy baiting the boys. 

“ We know very well what we are,” answered 
Dashaway. 

“ And what are you, if I may make so bold as 
to ask, sir? ” asked the mate. 

“ We are midshipmen of the Young American ^ 
I told you, and ” 

“ Belay that! ” interposed the officer. “ I will 
tell you what you are. You are a pair of infernally 
impudent boys on this ship. I have wasted enough 
time with the whole three of you. This claw- 
fingered gent will go into the port watch, my watch. 


66 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


You two babes are about equal to one man, and 
you will go into the second mate’s watch.” 

“ I demand to see the captain of this ship,” 
cried Dashaway. 

“ Steady now, steady now, young gents,” inter- 
posed the claw-fingered one. “ WeVe got no 
rights here, the officer won’t stand for no 
mutiny.” 

“ Now that’s downright sensible of you,” sneered 
the mate. “ You have it about right. I don’t 
want to be too hard on two young lambs as have 
just been torn away from their mothers. Have 
you ever been to sea ? ” 

“ Yes, we have,” answered Barrett. 

“ Tumble aloft, one of you to the foreroyal, 
and the other to the mainroyal, and loose the sails, 
the breeze is moderating and she’ll stand a little 
more canvas.” 

“ I refuse,” said Dashaway. promptly. 

“You what?” 

“ I am not a member of your crew, and I won’t 
take any orders from you or anybody. I want to 
see the captain.” 

“ I am all the captain you will see, young man,” 


TREASURE HUNTER 67 

said the mate fiercely. “ Up you go ! ” He 
pointed toward the royals. 

“ Better do it, young gents,” whispered the claw- 
fingered sailor. 

“ Never! ” cried Bob resolutely. 

The next instant the mate kicked at him with 
his heavy boot. Bob avoided it by a quick jump 
sidewise, and then he was at the mate’s throat. 
His shipmate and friend was not a bit behind him. 
He, too, sprang at the mate like a young tiger, 
and the three of them came heavily to the deck, 
where they writhed, struggled, and rolled fiercely. 

Now the mate was a big powerful man, able 
to take care of three or four lads like Bob and 
Jack, but their onslaught had been so sudden and 
unexpected and they fought him so fiercely, they 
clung to him like a couple of wildcats, that for a 
few minutes he was taken at a disadvantage, and 
it was not until after a hard struggle that he again 
got the upper hand. 

The men on deck, and it being in the second dog 
watch pretty nearly everybody was on deck, re- 
garded the contest with interest and excitement, 
but took no part in it. They had seen men kid- 


68 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


napped, or as It would be described now, “ shang- 
haied ” before. Nor were they there to help the 
mate enforce discipline, that was his affair, and 
indeed he would have taken shame to himself for- 
ever if he had been compelled to call for assist- 
ance, especially In such a case as this. The sym- 
pathy of the crew, of course, was with the boys 
as against the officer, but their sympathy was not 
sufficiently aroused to make them lift a finger to 
help. The second mate, who had the watch, came 
running forward, asking his superior if he wanted 
any help. 

“ No,” answered the other briefly, managing at 
last to tear Bob’s fingers away from his throat. 
“ I can take care of them.” 

He struggled to his feet and finally succeeded 
In getting each boy by the back of his jacket, where 
he could hold him at arm’s length. 

“ Great Jehosaphat ! ” said he, rather good- 
humouredly, he was not at all a bad sort of man 
at heart, “ you are the pluckiest pair of brats I’ve 
ever seen. Did ye know that you have just been 
guilty of mutiny on high seas? I could have you 
put In Irons for It and hung.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


69 

“We are not members of your crew and we 
can’t mutiny against you,” growled Jack Barrett, 
pale and breathless. 

“ Go at him. Jack,” cried Bob, brushing away 
with his hand the blood from his nose, which had 
been badly banged up in the fight. 

As he spoke he made another plunge toward 
the mate, but the latter held him with a grip of 
iron. With arms extended neither boy could 
reach the person of the officer. He was a man 
of gigantic strength, and he held them easily 
apart. 

“ Now, none of that, my little hearties, none 
of that!” He laughed. “You don’t get me 
again.” 

“ You 1 ” cried Bob, writhing impotently in the 
grasp of the man. “ You, Clawfinger, why don’t 
you help us? ” 

“ He knows which side his bread is buttered on,” 
said the mate. “ I might make allowances for 
your tender years, although you have fought like 
wildcats, but I never would make any allowances 
for him. He’s a man and knows better.” 

“ I am sorry for you, young gents,” answered 


70 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


the sailor to whom they had appealed, “ but you see 
how it is, he’s got the upper hand.” 

“ That’ll do from you,” answered the mate de- 
cidedly. “Now will you turn to, youngsters?” 

“ Speaking for myself,” answered Dashaway, 
“ never!” 

“ He speaks for me, too,” replied Barrett. 

“ Well, I hate to do it,” said the mate pleasantly 
enough, “ but I guess you’ve got to have your 
heads cracked together in the hope that I can 
knock some sense into them, and ” 

He swung the boys about quickly, intending to 
bang their heads together, but the instant his grip 
relaxed and his arms ceased to be stiffly extended 
both boys, as if moved by a simultaneous impulse, 
surged toward him. 

Not expecting a renewal of the attack, which 
came coincidently with a heavier pitch of the ship, 
the mate went down again. He had to let go the 
boys’ collars to get up, and the next moment they 
were on his breast and at his throat as before. 
They wallowed on the deck a second time, the 
mate making violent efforts to thrust one boy aside 
and get to his feet in spite of the grasp of the 


TREASURE HUNTER 


71 


other. He had succeeded in shoving Barrett away, 
and had about got to his knees with Dashaway 
clinging to him, when a quiet voice broke in on 
the fracas. 

“What is this, Mr. Rayton?” asked the new- 
comer. 

“ Mutiny, sir! Mutiny on the high seas ! ” an- 
swered Mr. Rayton, very red-faced and angry, 
making a violent effort, tearing Bob away and 
throwing him on the deck. 

“ Who are these lads? ” continued the newcomer. 

“ That blackguard from ‘ The Running Bow- 
line ’ put ’em aboard last night about the turn of 
the tide, they and that claw-fingered rascal over 
there.” 

“ At yer honour’s sarvice, sir,” answered the 
claw-fingered man, knuckling his forehead with his 
malformed hand. 

“ He’s got some sense,” continued the mate, “ if 
his fingers are claws. I ordered these little devils 
to turn to and lay aloft and loose the royals, and 
for answer they jumped on me. If they turn out 
to be as good sailors as they are fighters we are in 
luck, sir.” 


72 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


By this time Bob and Jack, who had been half 
stunned, had got to their feet. The mate’s fist 
had cut Jack over the eye, and it was swelling and 
blackening rapidly. Blood was still flowing from 
Bob’s nose, and together they presented two gory 
and battered faces toward the newcomer. 

“Are you the captain of this ship, sir? ” asked 
Barrett, respectfully enough. 

“ I am, and if you will take my advice you will 
turn to without any further trouble. So far as I 
can see, Mr. Rayton has dealt rather gently with 
you, and ” 

“Jack! Jack!” cried Dashaway, unceremoni- 
ously interrupting the captain, “ don’t you see who 
it is?” 

He seized his friend by the arm and shoved him 
forward. Barrett stared at the newcomer with his 
good eye. 

“Great Christmas!” he said at last. “You 
are right. Bob; it is our old friend, Mr. Har- 
per. 

“ That’s my name,” said the captain, “ although 
how you know it passes my comprehension.” 

“ I know your name, sir,” answered Bob, wiping 


TREASURE HUNTER 


73 

away the blood again and coming closer, “ because 

I know you. I have served under you, and ” 

“ Lord love you ! ” exclaimed Mr. Harper, 
recognising him at last. “ May I be dashed if it 
isn’t young Dashaway.” 

“ And Jack Barrett, sir. You knew him? ” 
“Of course, two of the Young Americanos 
reefers. What in the name of Heaven are you two 
youngsters doing here in my ship?” 

“ It is a long story, sir,” answered Dashaway. 

“ Mr. Rayton,” said Captain Harper, “ I am 
greatly indebted to these boys and to the uncle 
of this one. There has been some serious mistake 
about this. Will you come below with me to my 
cabin with the lads until we hear their story? ” 

“ Very good, sir,” answered Mr. Rayton, who 
was both puzzled and angered at the outcome of 
the affair. The captain turned aft and bidding the 
boys follow him walked toward the companion- 
way. 

Before Mr. Rayton turned to accompany them 
his eye fell on the claw-fingered one grinning mali- 
ciously at his discomfiture. 

“ You white-livered, claw-fingered son of a sea- 


74 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


cook! ” he roared. “ Wipe off that grin, lay aloft, 
and loose that foreroyal and bear a hand about it. 
Mr. Harmon,’* this to the second mate, “ please 
keep him busy until it is my watch.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” answered the second mate 
promptly, as Clawfinger sprung into the rigging 
and Mr. Rayton plunged down the companion 
hatch. 

A couple of towels and some cold water had 
freshened both boys a bit, and as Mr. Rayton en- 
tered the cabin they began their story. It was 
soon told. 

“ It is too bad, boys,” said Captain Harper, 
when the brief recital was over. “ I’d do any- 
thing on earth, or sea rather, to oblige Commodore 
Harkness, or any of his kith or kin or friends, but 
I’m already delayed far beyond the ordinary time 
of starting. I ought to be at the South Shetlands 
by now, but sickness, lack of a full crew, and other 
detentions have kept me a good six weeks behind 
my appointed date of departure. Well, I wouldn’t 
mind that; I’d turn back for New York anyway, 
only as a matter of fact, I think it would be no use 
at all. You see, your uncle will find you are on 


TREASURE HUNTER 


75 


this ship, and if he is the man I take him to be, 
he is already under way on our course. He can 
easily ascertain from the harbour master when 
we sailed, and from the warden of the port, our 
destination and course. We will make a quick 
run down to Rio, leave letters for him, if we do 
not find him there ahead of us, which would not 
surprise me at all, as I remember the Young Amer- 
ican was a very fast ship, and he will overhaul us 
sooner or later. That is the best I can do for 
you.” 

“ And that is enough, I am sure, sir,” answered 
Bob promptly. 

“ Quite enough,” assented Jack. 

“ Meanwhile, of course, you will berth aft with 
me.” 

“ Beg your pardon. Captain Harper,” said Bob, 
“ but Mr. Rayton said you are short-handed, 
and ” 

“ We are that,” growled the mate, who had re- 
mained an interested listener of the story. 

“ Well, then. Jack and I will be glad to turn 
to if your mate will assign us to a watch, and we 
will endeavour to show him that we can do a sea- 


76 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


man’s trick on the yards, or at the wheel, or on 
the halyards between us.” 

“What do you say, Mr. Rayton?” asked the 
captain. 

“ Why, I say it’s a fine and proper spirit that’s 
being showed by these boys. I think I will give 
Clawfinger to the second mate and take ’em in my 
watch in his place.” 

“ And I hope you don’t bear any malice to us 
for our attack on you on the deck a little while 
ago,” continued Bob. 

The mate laughed. 

“ If you are as good sailors as you are fighters, 
you’ll do,” he said. “ Whew ! ” He felt his 
throat and neck. “ You certainly did choke me 
good and proper.” 

“ For to-night,” said the captain to Mr. Ray- 
ton, “ we’ll give ’em a rest. They have had a 
pretty tough time, and they look rather white 
around the gills from the effects of that 
drug. And you didn’t handle them any too 
easy.” 

“ He was as gentle as he could be,” said Jack 
quickly, at which both officers laughed. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


77 


“ I will have the cook make you a good bowl 
of hot soup,” continued the captain, “ then you can 
take a good wash down, and then I order you 
to turn in for the night; to-morrow you can take 
your trick with the rest.” 


CHAPTER VI 


THE MAP OF THE ISLAND 

Something to eat, a good wash, two comfortable 
bunks in the spare cabin off the captain’s room aft, 
and a long, sound, healthy, untroubled sleep last- 
ing through the afternoon and night, put the two 
boys in good shape again. 

The bell forward was striking seven when they 
tumbled out on deck and began to dress. As Bob 
slipped on his jacket, he first felt and then took 
from the pocket the packet to which neither of 
them had given much attention, in the exciting 
events through which they had passed. Indeed, 
there had been no chance to examine it heretofore. 
Now that he had it in his hand, he could not resist 
inspecting it. Jack Barrett stepped close beside 
him, and together the boys untied the lashings 
and opened it. 

It had been carefully tied up in oilskin; prac- 
78 


BOB DASHAWAY 


79 


tically in a waterproof condition. Inside the 
wrappings lay an old, musty, faded piece of parch- 
ment. On it had been rudely traced with some red 
fluid which still retained its brightness, a very curi- 
ous map. From the pictures of the strange little 
animals playing in the sea and from the looks of 
a quaint, old-fashioned drawing of a ship, it was 
evident, or would have been to an expert, that the 
map was very old. Just how old neither boy, of 
course, could determine. 

The map was that of an island. It was drawn 
with no little skill by some one who evidently knew 
a good deal about topography and had made maps 
before. The parchment was the skin of some ani- 
mal, which had been carefully tanned. ,The red- 
coloured ink was of wonderful permanence and 
durability ! Indeed, the outlines of the map seemed 
to have been cut or scratched in the thick parch- 
ment and then filled in with the scarlet ink, or 
whatever it was. The shape of the island was 
very curious. It looked not unlike a gigantic 
claw or talon. As the two stared at it won- 
deringly. Bob broke into a sudden exclama- 
tion. 


8o 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“By Jiminy, Jack!” he said. “It looks just 
like old Clawfinger’s hand.” 

“Aye,” agreed Barrett, “it certainly does; I 
was just about to say it. I wonder where the map 
comes from and what it means.” 

“ Let me think,” answered Bob. “ That man 
we got it from spoke of treasure, didn’t he ? ” 

“ Yes, and the man who attacked him evidently 
was trying to get this very map.” 

“ Aye 1 and Clawfinger must have known some- 
thing about it.” 

“ I’ll tell you what it is,” said Barrett earnestly. 
“ I’ll bet it is a map of a treasure island. Let me 
look at it again. Bob.” 

“ I believe you are right,” said Dashaway, hand- 
ing over the precious drawing. 

Jack took it over to the side of the cabin, close 
to the dead-light, and examined it very carefully. 

“ Look here. Bob,” he said, pointing to an in- 
denture in the contour with printed words about 
it which the boys made out to be, “ Cave where 
Marigold lies/^ 

“Marigold!” mused Bob. “What kind of 
gold is that, I wonder? ” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


8i 


“ I haven’t the least idea,” answered Jack, “ but 
it is some kind of gold evidently.” 

“ Well, it isn’t much use to us,” said Bob, “ since 
the latitude and longitude have been torn off. See 
here.” 

He pointed to a corner where the word “ Lat,” 
with the letters “ Lon ” just beneath them and a 
jagged edge beyond, indicated that something had 
been torn away. 

“ Yes,” said Barrett, “ and look at the edge 
where it is torn, the other edges of the parchment 
are dull and old, but this is a whitish yellow and 
new.” 

“I see,” said Bob; “somebody has evidently 
torn off the latitude and longitude. If we could 
get that missing part of the parchment, we would 
know just where to go to find out just what this 
Marigold means, and all about it.” 

“ Well, we can’t do anything more now. Let’s 
finish dressing,” answered Barrett, “ and then 
we’ll show it to Captain Harper.” 

At that moment some one tapped at the door 
of the little cabin. 

“ What is it? ” asked Dashaway. 


82 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Captain Harper says breakfast will be ready 
at eight bells,” answered the cabin steward, who 
was on the other side. 

“ Aye, we’ll be ready,” was the reply. 

In a few moments the two boys reported to the 
captain in his cabin. The second mate had the 
watch, and Mr. Rayton was therefore present at 
the table for the morning meal. 

“ Good-morning, how do you feel now, boys?” 
asked Mr. Harper. 

“ Fine, sir,” answered Dashaway. 

“ We slept well, sir,” added Barrett, “ and as 
far as I am concerned I am as hungry as can 
be.” 

“ Fall to, then,” laughed Captain Harper, after 
he had reverently asked a blessing on the meal, and 
in a few minutes both boys vigorously attacked the 
smoking bacon, the fried potatoes, and the steam- 
ing coffee. Conversation was at a discount for a 
short space until the requirements of the inner man 
had been satisfied. 

As soon as the boys had finished their breakfast, 
at a nod from Jack, Bob began. 

“ Captain Harper and Mr. Rayton, I believe 


TREASURE HUNTER 83 

we told you about the packet we got from the 
shirt of the sailor we helped.” 

“ Yes, I remember that you did.” 

* “ Here it is, sir,” said Bob, producing it from 
the pocket of his jacket, and handing it across the 
table. 

The captain took it, opened it, and spread out 
the map, studied it, and passed it over to the mate. 

“ What do you make of it, Mr. Rayton? ” 

The mate bent his brows and examined it mi- 
nutely and with care; finally he got up from the 
table and walked over toward the companionway 
and studied it more carefully by the light that came 
down the open hatch. 

“ Well, sir,” he said at last, “ it is plain enough 
that it is the map or chart of an island. It has 
been drawn by a sailorman, I take it, and one of 
some education and accustomed to making maps, 
for the workmanship on it is very fine. It is on the 
skin of some animal, and the red tracing is probably 
the juice of some plant, or maybe comes from the 
cochineal worm. It is a curious looking island. I 
have been in the South Seas more than once, and 
I’ve never run across anything like it myself, yet 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


84 

I guess that it is a Pacific island. It is partially 
surrounded by reefs, I take it. Otherwise it must 
be the product of some volcano.” 

“ You haven’t the least idea what island it is, 
or where it is? ” asked the captain. 

“ Not the least in the world, sir,” answered the 
mate, handing it back. 

“ Evidently it once bore the latitude and longi- 
tude,” said Captain Harper, looking at it again. 
“ See, this corner has been torn off, and the tear 
runs right through the words latitude and longi- 
tude. What is that printing there? ” 

‘‘ It says, ^ Cave where Marigold lies/ sir,” an- 
swered the mate, “ although what that means, I 
don’t know.” 

“ The man we got it of said it was a treasure 
island, sir,” interposed Dashaway. 

“ And evidently some one considered it valuable 
because they nearly killed him to get it,” com- 
mented Barrett. 

“ Marigold! ” mused the captain. 

“ We never heard of that kind of gold, sir,” 
ventured Bob. 

“ It is a name,” said the captain, “ probably the 


TREASURE HUNTER 85 

name of a ship. I do not remember any famous 
Marigold, however.” 

He studied the plan again. 

“ Well, it is no use to us now as it is. I don’t 
suppose there is a part of the globe where ships 
sail that is so little known as the South Seas. Fail- 
ing the latitude and longitude the map is perfectly 
worthless. It is an interesting curiosity. It must 
be terribly old. They do not put all those dolphins 
and ships and sea monsters and so on, on the maps 
nowadays.” He handed it back to Bob with a 
deep sigh. “ I wish we could find out something 
more about it,” he continued a little anxiously. 
“ If there is a treasure there, I should like to go 
and get it. I have a wife and three girls and a 
baby boy at home, and they need all the treasure I 
can find.” 

“ It is our map, sir,” answered Bob, “ but if 
there is any treasure there and we could manage 
to find it with the Betsey, we would be perfectly 
willing to divide it all around, wouldn’t we. Jack? ” 

“ Of course,” answered his friend. 

Mr. Rayton laughed. 

“ I’ve often heard an old proverb that says some- 


86 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


thing about not counting your chickens before your 
eggs are hatched,” he said. 

“ It doesn’t do any harm in this instance,” said 
the captain, smiling back at Mr. Rayton. 

“ And it is mysterious and strange how we came 
across the map,” said Jack. “ Maybe some day 
we will find the missing piece, and ” 

“ Perhaps so,” returned the captain; “stranger 
things have happened.” 

“ If I was a betting man,” said Mr. Rayton, 
“ I would bet a thousand to nothing that you will 
never find it. However, there is no harm in 
dreaming about it.” 

“ Perhaps you had better keep it. Captain Har- 
per,” said Bob, handing the parchment back. “ By 
the way, sir, what do you think the island looks 
like?” 

The captain examined it again. 

“ Why it looks like a three-fingered claw or 
talon,” he answered. 

“ Mr. Rayton at that came down upon the table 
with his large fist. 

“ Clawfingerl ” he cried. “ I have it” 

“You mean?” 


TREASURE HUNTER 87 

“ The man who came aboard with these young- 
sters, perhaps he knows something about it.” 

“ He seemed awfully anxious to get something 
from that man we helped, and appeared to be 
badly disappointed when he found it was gone,” 
said Dashaway. 

“ Of course; you didn’t let on to him that you 
had the map yourselves?” asked Mr. Rayton. 

“ Not for a moment, sir,” was the prompt reply. 

“ That was well done,” said Mr. Rayton, evi- 
dently well pleased. 

“ Very well indeed,” interposed the captain. 
“ Perhaps you had better let me handle the affair. 
I will think it over, and we will talk about it again. 
If I question him I will have you all in here. Now, 
are you ready to turn to ? ” 

“ All ready, sir,” said both boys, jumping up. 

“ And thank you very much for treating us so 
nicely,” said Jack. 

“ And as we will be for’ard of the mast for the 
cruise, I do not suppose we will have another op- 
portunity of expressing our gratitude,” added Bob. 

“ You can work for’ard of the mast, as we are so 
short-handed,” returned the captain, smiling pleas- 


88 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


antly at their cheerful willingness, “ but you will 
berth and mess aft here with me.” 

“ Thank you very kindly, sir,” answered Dasha- 
way, “ but what will the other men of the crew 
think?” 

“ It doesn’t make any difference what they think. 
To tell the truth, I never before sailed with such 
a crew. They are mostly all picked up from 
boarding-house masters, and they seem to include 
the scum of all nations. They are not like the 
ordinary American crews which I have commanded 
heretofore,” said the captain, “ but when the Betsey 
cleared, it seemed that every decent sailorman had 
been shipped out of the harbour.” 

“ Yes, sir; we were rather short-handed on the 
Young American/^ said Bob. 

“ And under the circumstances, with such a crew, 
I would rather have you aft than not. I do not 
know what may happen before we reach Port 
Stanley, and I can depend upon you boys. I have 
tried your temper in the old Betsey/* 

“ Thank you, sir,” said Jack. 

“ What became of her, sir? ” asked Bob. 

“ I sold her just after the war,” answered the 


» 



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TREASURE HUNTER 89 

captain, “ and with my share of the proceeds and 
my share of the prize money from our adventure 
with the pirates, and with some that I could borrow 
from friends, I built this new and better ship in the 
hopes of making a fortune, or a competence, at 
least, for the wife and babies. We are going to 
trade down the coast and then plunge south of 
Cape Horn for seal, and by the way, boys, if the 
Young American does not pick you up, I will give 
you your ‘ lay ’ — share of the profits of the cruise, 
that is — with the rest of the ship’s complement 
It may make us all rich, and then again it may 
not.” 

“ We don’t care whether it does or not, we are 
so thankful for falling into your hands instead of 
a stranger. And anyway Uncle Joshua, Commo- 
dore Harkness, I mean, will find out what has be- 
come of us, and he will overhaul us somewhere, 
especially if we leave word everywhere we touch, 
as to our next point of destination,” answered Bob. 

‘‘ I think that is quite likely,” said Mr. Harper, 
“ now let us go on deck.” 


CHAPTER VII 


clawfinger’s story 

It had come on to blow early in the morning, and 
the watches throughout the day had been busy 
on the Betsey, making and taking in sail as the 
strength of the wind varied. 

Like every American sailor, Captain Harper 
was in a hurry. He would carry sail to the last 
possible minute before he reduced the canvas, and 
did the wind show a sign of abatement he clapped 
on again. The breeze was not strong enough to 
need the services of both watches, but the watch 
on was kept busy and it was a pair of very tired 
boys who came rolling aft at the close of the second 
dog watch for their four hours in. 

The captain had intended to question Master 
Clawfinger about the matter which had been dis- 
cussed in the morning, and to which he and Mr. 
Rayton had given some anxious thought, but when 
he saw how tired and sleepy the youngsters were. 


90 


BOB DASHAWAY 


91 

he ordered them to turn in and postponed his en- 
quiries until the next day. 

Having had the mid watch, the boys of course 
had the watch on in the morning. In the afternoon 
they were free, and when they had partaken of 
the substantial cabin fare with appetites grandly 
developed by the hard work and the fresh air of 
the sea, the captain summoned the mate, and the 
two gentlemen with the boys resolved themselves 
into what the commander was pleased to call a 
council of war. Bidding Mr. Harmon, the second 
mate, who had the watch, to send the sailor. Claw- 
finger, to the cabin, the captain cautioned the boys 
to say nothing except in answer to questions. He 
had brought out the famous map and laid it on 
the table, covering the torn portion with a book 
which he placed across it. 

Presently the sailor who had been summoned 
descended the companionway, knuckled his fore- 
head, and made a sea scrape in true man-o’-war 
fashion. 

“ What is your name? ” began Captain Harper. 

“ I gener’ly goes by the name o’ Clawfinger, sir,” 
was the prompt reply. 


92 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


“ That is not an answer to my question.” 

“ My other name’s Joel.” 

“ Were you born with the name of Claw- 
finger?” 

“ I was born with the thing, anyway,” answered 
the man, sticking out his hand and exhibiting its 
hideous deformity. 

“ And you have no other name? ” 

“ That’s the name I go by.” 

“ How is he entered on the ship’s books, Mr. 
Rayton? ” 

“ Joel Clawfinger, able seaman, sir.” 

“ Humph,” said the captain, “ these young 
gentlemen have told me how they happened to 
meet you. They seemed to think that you were 
interested in getting something from the man who 
was attacked and whom they apparently rescued 
from severe handling.” 

‘‘ Aye, sir, you’ve got the rights of it.” 

“ What was it you wanted to get? ” demanded 
the captain swiftly. 

The sailor was for the moment taken back. 
He had not expected the question and he was 
not prepared to answer. He halted, faltered. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


93 


shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, looked 
about the little group, the captain and Mr. Rayton 
close by, the boys farther back, and found nothing 
to say on the spur of the moment. 

“ Why I — er — as a matter of fact, sir, we — 
ah ” 

“ Was this what you wanted? ” said the captain 
quickly, lifting the parchment in his hand, and hold- 
ing the map so that the fact that a portion of it 
had been torn off could not be observed by any one. 

“ Sink me I ” roared the man, his face flaming. 
“ You got it after all.” 

Then he stopped again. The colour receded 
from his cheeks, leaving them their usual leathery 
tint. He glanced at the plan which the captain 
extended before his eyes, and with well simulated 
carelessness endeavoured to correct himself. 

“ I was mistook, sir, an’ thought you had some- 
thin’ else.” . 

“ Ah ! you did, did you? ” 

“ Aye.” 

“ And what do you make out of this? ” 

Clawfinger reached out his hand to take it, but 
the captain refused to allow him. 


94 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“You can examine it while I hold it,” he 
said. 

“ Seems to be a kind of a chart, sir, map of an 
island in the South Seas.” 

“Ah!” said Captain Harper. “What makes 
you think it is in the South Seas? ” 

The man sought to correct his slip, and did so 
with considerable adroitness. 

“ Why, sir, IVe sailed in them seas, an’ sich 
islands are gener’ly to be found thereabouts.” 

“ You don’t know the name of the island? ” 

“ No, sir; ’tain’t got no name, I guess.” 

Another slip that! 

“ How did you know it hasn’t any name ? ” asked 
the captain, seizing the opportunity again. 

“ They don’t gener’ly have no names, so far’s 
my experience goes,” was the ready answer. 

“ And you don’t know the latitude or longitude 
of this one, then? ” 

“ It is marked on the chart, ain’t it? ” came the 
careless answer. 

“ How did you know that? ” 

Clawfinger bit his lip. 

“ I don’t know nothin’ about it,” he said dully. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


95 

determining to take refuge in assumed ignorance 
lest he betray himself further. 

The captain looked at Mr. Rayton and nodded, 
whereupon the latter took up the tale and began. 

“ You might as well stop lying, Clawfinger. 
You have showed us pretty plainly by the admis- 
sions you have already made that you know a lot 
more about this island than you are willing to tell. 
We have a particular interest in finding out about 
it, and you are going to tell us all you know. 
See?” 

“ I don’t know nothin’ about it at all,” answered 
the man stubbornly. 

“ You never saw this map before? ” 

“ Never.” 

“ You never heard of this island before? ” 

“ No, sir.” 

“ You don’t know what is on it? ” 

“ I can make a guess as to that.” 

“ Ah I What is your guess? ” 

“ Pa’ms an’ cocoanuts, bananas, bread-fruit, 
pineapples, an’ other tropic stuff, sich as you come 
across south o’ the line.” 

“Ah! Why south of the line?” 


96 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ That’s w’ere most of ’em lies in them waters.^ 

“What waters?” 

“ South Seas, Pacific waters, o’ course.” 

Mr. Rayton looked at the captain, who suddenly 
shot another question at the sailor. 

“ And what about the Marigold? ” 

“ The Marigold, sir ! ” exclaimed the man, evi- 
dently fencing for time to think up some evasion. 

“That’s what I said. Plain English, isn’t it? 
What about it? ” 

“ Seems to me I do recollect a little yeller flower, 
which I knowed when I was a lad down East that 
had some sich name, but I never heerd of ’em 
growin’ south o’ the line,” answered the man glibly. 

Marigold is a ship’s name, I take it,” said 
Captain Harper. 

“ Ah ! a ship, sir.” 

“ That’s what I said.” 

“ Well, it might be so ; Pve knowed ships as 
had the names of posies, an’ — an’ ” 

“ I have no doubt it was a treasure ship.” 

“ Treasure ! ” exclaimed the man, his eyes gleam- 
ing. “ Lemme have another look at that map, yer 
honour.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


97 


“ You have had enough looks at it for the pres- 
ent. It doesn’t concern you,” said the captain 
coolly, folding it up and putting it in his pocket. 
“You know nothing about it, you never heard of 
it, never saw it, and therefore, have no interest in 
it. That’ll do.” 

Although he received his dismissal, Clawfinger 
still hung in the wind, as a sailor would say. 

“ I beg yer pardon, yer honour,” he said at last, 
“ but now I come to think on it, there was some 
talk o’ treasure. I oncet had a shipmate name 
Buntlin, Jack Buntlin — a Nantucket man. He was 
with Cap’n David Porter in the Essex frigate, an’ 
he had some adventures in the South Seas arter 
that ship was sunk by the British. Him an’ me 
was shipmates in a British whaler oncet. I came 
back to the United States an’ he stayed there. I 
overhauled him in New York a few days ago. 
He said somethin’ to me an’ a chancet acquaintance 
that we run acrost about havin’ picked up a chart 
of some treasure island down in Valparaiso, or 
some of them Spanish ports, an’ mebbe that’s it.” 

“ Ah ! now we’re getting some light on the situa- 
tion,” said the captain. 


98 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ I don’t know nothin’ about it personal, I never 
set eyes on it,” continued the man. 

“ You don’t know the latitude and longitude? ” 

“ No, sir,” said the man, “ I’ve told you all I 
know about it. That may be it, or it mayn’t be it, 
an’ ” 

“ And you never heard the name Mangold? ” 

The man hesitated. 

“ Come, come ! ” interjected Mr. Rayton 
roughly. “We know you are lying. You have 
admitted that you were. Make a clean breast of 
it.” 

“ Air you going down arter that treasure, sir, 
might I ask? ” 

“ You might ask,” said the captain drily, “ but 
asking and getting an answer are two different 
things.” 

“ Heave ahead with your yarn,” said Mr. Ray- 
ton. “ You have told us enough to enable us to 
see that you are holding back something and that 
you know something more.” 

“Do I git a share of it?” queried the man 
hoarsely. 

“ Everybody who sails with me gets a share. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


99 

and a fair share, of everything that is picked 
up.” 

“ Well, sir. I’ve told you pretty much everything 
I know. Buntlin had this map, he got it in Val- 
paraiso, just how, I don’t know. It’s a map of 
some island in the South Seas ; what’s its name an’ 
where it lies, I don’t know. Buntlin said there was 
a treasure there on it amounting to millions.” 

“ And the Marigold^ what about her? ” 

“ I don’t know nothin’ about her, except she was 
the ship that had the treasure aboard. That’s all, 
so help me Gawd,” cried the man earnestly. 

“ Where is this island? ” 

“ The latitude and longitude is set down on the 
chart, you can sail there yourself an’ find out all 
about it.” 

And this was a third bad slip, at which the cap- 
tain smiled, and continued: 

“ And this Buntlin was attacked by you and 
your friends? ” 

“ Not by me, sir. Them young gents’ll testify 
as how I didn’t heave in sight until arter they’d 
fit off the other man an’ ” 

“ I see,” said Captain Harper, who had a shrewd 


100 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


surmise that Clawfinger had been waiting until the 
other man got it away from Buntlin and then he 
intended to step in and take the packet himself — to 
despoil the despoiler, as it were! 

“ And you had no hand in the kidnapping of 
these boys? ” 

“ Doesn’t look as if I did, sir,” answered Claw- 
finger, readily and convincingly, “ when I’m yere 
myself. The mate, yonder, I make no doubt seed 
how we came aboard, sir.” 

“You were all blind drunk, as insensible as 
logs,” said Mr. Rayton. “ I can bear testimony 
to that.” 

“ You see, sir,” exclaimed Clawfinger triumph- 
antly. 

“Yes, I see,” answered the captain. “That’ll 
be all, you can go for’ard.” 

“Beg pardon, sir; ain’t you goin’ ter make an 
effort ter git that treasure, an’ ” 

“ You have no business to question me,” an- 
swered Captain Harper severely, “ but neverthe- 
less, I will give you a plain answer. I am not 
going to take my ship on a wild goose chase among 
dangerous and unknown islands of the South Seas 


TREASURE HUNTER loi 

to hunt for treasure on the testimony of a map 
like that.” 

“ But, sir,” appealed the man, “ my old ship- 
mate, Buntlin, he was dead sure of it.” 

“ That’ll do,” said the captain curtly, “ get 
for’ard.” 

The man hesitated, looking viciously from one 
to the other of the little group, but in the face of 
a positive order from the captain, there was noth- 
ing for him to do but to obey. He turned and 
mounted the ladder and disappeared. 

“ There’s a villain, if I ever saw one,” said Cap- 
tain Harper. 

“ No doubt,” answered Mr. Rayton, “ but I 
will say this for the man that he is a prime seaman, 
if I am any judge.” 

“ Oh, yes, that’s easily to be seen, but did you 
ever see a more vicious cast of countenance than 
he has got? ” 

“ He has the look of a vulture,” answered Mr. 
Rayton, “ and with that claw of his he reminds 
me of the filthy bird.” 

“ He is in the second mate’s watch. Tell Mr. 
Harmon to keep a sharp lookout on him.” 


102 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Beg pardon, sir,” said Bob, “ but do you be- 
lieve the story of the treasure?” 

“ I believe Clawfinger thinks it is true,” replied 
the captain, “ but as for myself, I gravely doubt 
it. Yarns of this kind are afloat on every sea. 
I’ve heard lots of them, and so has Mr. Rayton, 
I am sure. There is about as much foundation 
to them, as a rule, as there is to the bag of gold 
at the end of the rainbow; besides, whatever we 
might think of it,” he lifted the parchment again, 
“ we are helpless lacking the latitude and longi- 
tude, which, whether fortunately or unfortunately 
for us, somebody has torn off from the 
sheet. Without that information we can do 
nothing.” 

He studied the parchment again, turning it over 
and inspecting both sides minutely. 

‘‘ It is too bad,” he said at last, almost reversing 
his former decision. “ There is just the bare pos- 
sibility that there might be some truth in it.” He 
stopped suddenly. “ Mr. Rayton,” he said, “ take 
a look at this piece of leather again! Look at 
both sides of it. What do you make of 
it?” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


103 

Mr. Rayton stepped nearer the light and scruti- 
nised the parchment a second time. 

“ I don’t see anything more than I did before, 
sir.” 

“ Look at the two sides, top and bottom, any 
difference between them? ” 

The mate studied the parchment long and ear- 
nestly, and turned it over. 

“ It is thinner,” he said, “ than ordinary parch- 
ment.” 

‘‘ Yes, and the top side is smoother and darker 
in colour than the under side.” 

“ Yes, and the under side is rough.” 

“ Right! Look at the edges.” 

The mate rubbed his hands carefully down the 
edges. 

“ Looks like something had been pasted to the 
back of it,” he said at last. 

“ I take it,” said the captain, “ that that parch- 
ment has been split; see how these edges and the 
under side are rough, just as if it had been split 
originally, and then the split part pasted back, and 
now it is gone again.” 

“ I believe you are right, sir,” answered Mr. 


104 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


Rayton. “ Here, boys,” he handed it over to the 
two youngsters, who were burning up with curi- 
osity, “ you take a look at it.” 

The two boys sprang to the ladder, stepped 
up a few rounds until the broad sunlight fell full 
on the mysterious map. They pored over it 
eagerly, and their bright young eyes discovered 
something more. 

“ Look here, sir,” said Bob, turning to the other 
two, who had followed them, “ looks as if there 
had been writing on the back of this parchment. 
Here is a dim black line.” 

“Here’s another! You are right; there has 
been writing on the under sheet, and it has left 
a faint impression here and there on the top 
sheet,” answered the captain, after another in- 
spection. 

“ That’ll be about it,” said the mate. 

“ This makes it more interesting than ever,” 
said Captain Harper. “ Somebody evidently went 
to great care and pains to preserve some record of 
events connected with this island. The secret of 
the mystery is on the under sheet, I am sure, and 
if we had that we would know what to do.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


105 

“ But if we had the latitude and longitude,” said 
the mate, “ it would be possible to sail there and 
find out ourselves, but having neither I guess the 
whole thing is like a sealed book to us.” 

“ When I get back to New York, if I ever do,” 
said Bob, “ I am going to look up that man who 
was stabbed, if he is yet alive.” 

“ And the chances of your finding that sailor- 
man, even if his life was saved, are millions to 
one.” 

“ Yes, sir, I suppose so.” 

“ Well,” said Captain Harper, “ we will put 
this treasure island story out of our minds. We 
have a strong, well-found ship, and if we have good 
luck we ought to come back with a fine cargo of 
sealskins and make money for us all. I wish I 
could have a body of down-easters, instead of this 
riffraff and ruffian crew we have aboard.” 

‘‘ And of all the possible scoundrels in the ship,” 
said Mr. Rayton, “ that Clawfinger will be the 
chief. I wonder how he came by so good and 
honest a Bible name as Joel.” 

“ The crew is a pretty poor one,” said the cap- 
tain, “ but I have an idea that before we have 


io6 BOB DASHAWAY 

crossed the line we shall have licked them into 
better shape. I have seen wonders accomplished 
with no better stuff than we have aboard. There’s 
one consolation that in you and Mr. Harmon I 
have two excellent officers, and in the boys here, 
two youngsters whose mettle I know can be de- 
pended upon absolutely. I do not anticipate any- 
thing serious is going to happen.” 

“ I hope not, sir,” answered the mate, “ but if 
it does, it won’t be because we haven’t kept a 
bright lookout. ‘ Forewarned is forearmed,’ and 
it will be a sharp crew that will get ahead of us.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


MR. RAYTON STOPS THE FIRST MUTINY 

The Betsey made an extraordinarily quick run to 
the line, which she reached thirty-five days after 
her departure from New York. You must re- 
member that all of this happened long before the 
days of the great clipper ships of a generation 
later which used to make the line — the equator, 
that is — in three weeks or less! The run to Rio 
Janeiro, Brazil, was made at the same rapid rate. 
Touching there to discharge some cargo, to re- 
plenish his provisions, and to look for the Young 
American, Captain Harper left a letter with the 
American consul to be delivered to that ship, of 
which nothing had as yet been heard. 

He offered to put the two boys ashore at Rio, 
and provide them with sufficient money to enable 
them to take passage to the United States in some 
home-bound vessel. Of course, there was no real, 
absolute certainty that the Young American was 
107 


io8 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


on their tracks, but there was a sufficiently strong 
possibility to make the youngsters determine to 
stay with the Betsey, whose next ports would be 
Montevideo and Buenos Aires, whence they would 
run down for a last stop at the wild, desolate, and 
then almost uninhabited Falklands before the final 
plunge to the Antarctic Ocean. There was 
scarcely a settlement worthy of the name upon the 
islands at that time, but there were a few inhab- 
itants, fishermen mostly, and on occasion vessels 
sealing to the southward or ships driven out of 
their course by the terrific storms that more often 
than not raged around Cape Horn stopped there 
to refit.^ 

They met with no better fortune at the two 
stops in the River “Plate” (Rio de la Plata) 
than at Rio. Leaving letters as before, they then 
headed for the Falklands. 

The long run south was made uneventfully 
enough, the luck of the Betsey still held, she was 
swept on by splendid winds, and proved herself 
a swift goer indeed. The boys had not been off 
soundings — i. e., in deep blue water — for over two 
years before, but they speedily got back their sea 


TREASURE HUNTER 


109 


legs and showed themselves daring and alert light- 
yardmen. The Betsey was well found and well 
provided, the discipline was firm but fair, the men 
were reasonably well content apparently, and 
everything went merrily, at least on the surface. 

Clawfinger had speedily made for himself a 
place of considerable importance and influence in 
the crew. For one thing he was one of the best 
seamen on the ship. If he was sullen and hostile 
to the officers, he was friendship itself with the 
men forward, and he tried to be on agreeable 
terms with the boys, who, however, viewed him 
with growing distrust. He carried his opposition 
to the officers just about as far as he dared without 
crossing the line into mutiny. However, he did 
his work well, and as Mr. Rayton said, so long as 
he obeyed orders and did what he was told it did 
not make much difference what his thoughts were. 

There was one peculiarity the man had of which 
everybody on the ship soon became aware, and that 
was the strength and power he possessed in that 
long claw-like talon from which he took his name. 
It was appalling. The two fingers together were 
thicker than two ordinary fingers of a man would 


1 10 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


be if joined, and they were half again as long. 
There was something sinister and frightful in the 
sight of his hand, not when the finger was rolled 
round and curled up but when it was extended. It 
was as if an eagle’s talon or vulture’s claw were 
placed on a human hand. He could actually curl 
it around the mainstay and hold himself suspended 
in the air without a great deal of difficulty appar- 
ently. 

The ship carried no boys except Bob and Jack 
— she was slightly undermanned, by the way — and 
although they did seamen’s work, especially on 
the lighter spars and yards in their watch, the fact 
that they berthed aft and messed with the officers 
largely removed them from contact, and certainly 
from intimacy with the crew. Of course, occa- 
sionally in the second dog watch, the youngsters, 
boy like, would join the group of “ yarners ” on 
the forecastle, but there was not that freedom of 
delightful and respectful welcome which would 
have been accorded them on a man-o’-war, and 
they soon abandoned the practice. 

They were fair navigators already, and Captain 
Harper, who was a conscientious man, assisted 


TREASURE HUNTER 


III 


by Mr. Rayton, a very competent observer, put 
the boys through a rigorous course of advanced 
navigation and also instructed them in the develop- 
ment of the fine art of seamanship. 

They made the Falklands without difficulty, 
hove to off the port, sent a boat ashore with Mr. 
Rayton and the two boys in the stern sheets. The 
stroke oar of the boat’s crew happened to be Claw- 
finger. There were several barques and schooners 
at Port Stanley, but a glance about the dreary har- 
bour showed none of them to be the Young Amer- 
ican. 

There were no letters, of course, for the Betsey. 
If the Young American had stopped at Rio or 
Buenos Aires, she would have learned that the 
boys were on the Betsey and her last stopping place 
would be Port Stanley, to which, of course, she 
would have repaired at her best speed possible. 
The fact that she was not there and had not been 
there was somewhat disquieting. The Betsey was 
an extraordinarily fast merchant ship, but she was 
not believed to be equal in speed to the ex-priva- 
teer, which was undoubtedly one of the swiftest 
keels in the ocean. 


II2 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


By all odds if the Young American had started 
one or two days after the Betsey she should cer- 
tainly have been ahead of her at the Falklands. 

Captain Harper and the boys were thus placed 
in a dilemma. The season was already far ad- 
vanced, and if the Betsey were to reach the South 
Shetland Islands and the sealing coasts to the south- 
ward in good time, she could no longer delay her 
departure. There was a chance, of course, that, 
unable to get track of the boys, the Young Ameri- 
can had gone off about her own business, and if 
he waited for her. Captain Harper might lay his 
ship up at the Falklands indefinitely. He was 
part owner of the Betsey, but he had duties to the 
other owners and to the crew as well, who shipped 
for a small salary and a portion of the season’s 
catch of seals. To put the boys ashore on these 
desolate islands on a chance of their getting a 
homeward bound ship was hardly to be thought 
of. Indeed, if the Betsey had a lucky season she 
would probably be homeward bound herself be- 
fore the end of the year. 

He advised them to remain with him, and with 
a somewhat heavy heart, the boys consented. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


113 

A letter had been prepared stating the destination 
of the sealer would be the South Shetland Islands. 
This was left at Port Stanley with a request that 
it be delivered to the Young American if she 
touched at the port and the boat returned to the 
Betsey. It was soon hoisted to the davits, the 
yards were swung, and the ship laid on her 
course. 

Now, the wind was fair for a run down past 
Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn toward the 
South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Circle. 
The weather was unusually mild and the ship was 
under plain sail and making great headway 
through that most dangerous and tempestuous sea 
of all of the world. The Falklands had scarcely 
been dropped behind the horizon when Mr. Har- 
mon, the second mate, who had the watch, was 
informed by a deputation from the crew that the 
men would like to speak to the captain. 

Excluding the captain, the two mates, and the 
two boys, who lived aft, five in all, there were 
twenty-two men forward of the mast, including 
the cook and cabin steward. Sealing ships car- 
ried heavier crews than ordinary merchant vessels, 


1 14 BOB DASHAWAY, 

and this was a light crew, considering the tonnage 
of the Betsey, 

Captain Harper at once came on deck. He was 
followed by Mr. Rayton and the two boys, who 
were all in the watch off. The men grouped 
themselves in the starboard gangway abreast the 
mainmast. Captain Harper, who was short but 
sturdy and powerfully built, stood with his hands 
in the pockets of his pea-jacket and confronted his 
crew with steady glance and level brow. The 
other officers stood back of him, Mr. Rayton being 
close at hand and the boys further away. Mr. 
Harmon on watch stood aft between the weather 
rail and the wheel. 

“ Well,” said the captain, as no one appeared 
willing to break the silence, “ you asked to see 
me; what do you want? ” 

He spoke shortly and sharply, for he did not 
like the sullen looks of the men. Still no one an- 
swered. It was not an easy matter to beard the 
captain on his own deck in his own ship after all. 
The natural spokesman would have been Claw- 
finger, but for some reason he kept himself well 
in the background. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


115 

Finally the sailmaker’s mate, a rough and ready 
able seaman, who had been shipped at New York 
and who had as villainous a looking countenance 
as was ever seen on the high seas, broke the ice. 

“ We’d like to know where the ship’s headed 
for,” he began at first hesitatingly but got confi- 
dence as he went on, and ended with bold assur- 
ance. 

Captain Harper controlled his temper. His 
eyes flashed but he said very quickly: 

“ When you signed it was for a cruise to the 
Antarctic Ocean after seal, was it not? ” 

- Yes, but ” 

“ What has induced you to suspect that I have 
changed my mind and the destination of the ship ? ” 

“ Nothin’ at all,” answered the man, “ it’s plain 
enough where you are goin’.” 

“Why the question, then?” 

“ Cause it ain’t where we wants to go.” 

“ Indeed I ” said Captain Harper. “ I have 
yet to learn what right the crew has to decide 
where the ship shall go.” 

“ Oh ! if you’re talkin’ about rights ” said 

the man sneeringly, looking about him at the faces 


ii6 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


of the men as if to say that might was right and 
strength was on the side of the greater number. 
“ Howsomever, we won’t press that p’int. We 
come before you as a dutiful an’ willin’ crew to 
ax something of you most respectful like,” and 
if ever a man’s attitude and bearing belied that 
adjective, they did so in this instance. 

“Ah!” said Captain Harper, “we come now 
to the milk of the cocoanut, eh, Mr. Rayton? ” 

“ I think so,” answered the mate nonchalantly, 
lounging against the bulwark close at hand. 

He had his hands behind him, but the boys 
noticed that both fists were clinched tightly. 

“ Well, heave ahead, my hearties,” continued 
the captain to the crew. 

“ We’ve heerd tell,” insolently resumed the 
sailmaker’s mate, shifting his quid and nerving 
himself to a great effort, “ as how you’ve come 
into possession of a map or chart of a South Pacific 
island somewheres which has got a ship’s load of 
treasure, doubloons, Spanish pieces-o’-eight layin’ 
loose on it for the takin’.” 

“Ah, indeed!” said the captain suavely, with 
a most suspicious courtesy and calm. “ And how. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


117 

may I ask, did you come into possession of this 
interesting bit of information ? ” 

The sailmaker’s mate looked around until his 
eye fell on the face of Clawfinger in the back- 
ground. He beckoned with his hand and unwil- 
lingly enough Clawfinger came to the front. 

“ He told us so,” he said. 

“ So you have been yarning on the fo’c’s’l, have 
you?” asked Captain Harper. 

“ Well, yer honour,” began the man respect- 
fully enough but utterly unable to conceal the in- 
solence in his heart, or possibly carelessly indiffer- 
ent as to who might know his feelings, “ there was 
some talk about it natur’ly in the dog watches of 
a long cruise like this, and ” 

“ And the long and short of it is,” interrupted 
the bigger man, “ we ax you to give over the sealin’, 
which is a hard business an’ a dirty business an’ 
there ain’t so much money in it, an’ take a run 
over to this yere island an’ ship the treasure 
aboard, an’ ” 

‘‘That’s all, is it?” asked Captain Harper as 
the man paused. 

“ Ain’t that enough ? ” questioned the man. “ I 


ii8 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


guess the latitude and longitude of that island is 
marked on your chart, an’ we understand that ” 

“ Well, there are some things you don’t under- 
stand,” interrupted Captain Harper. “ One of 
them is that I command this ship. Another of 
them is that I don’t propose to be dictated to, or 
advised, by any crew afloat. I know my own 
business and I can carry it out without any assist- 
ance. I have heard what you had to say and you 
have heard my answer. Now go forward and let 
the Watch on deck turn to and be quick about it.” 

He stepped forward, his head thrust out, and 
threateningly faced the group as he spoke thus 
boldly. The men fell back a little but made no 
other movement toward obeying orders. 

“ Are you goin’ to’ sail for that island? ” roared 
the big sailmaker’s mate, throwing the last pre- 
tence at subordination and respect to the winds. 

“ No, I am not,” thundered the captain. “ We 
are going to the South Shetlands.” 

“ You’ll have to work the ship there alone, 
then,” cried the seaman in sudden passion. “ Ain’t 
that so, mates? ” 

“ Aye,” came roaring from the crew, “ Wethers 


TREASURE HUNTER 


119 

is right, pickin’ up Spanish dollars beats knockin’ 
seals in the head, and ” 

“ Mr. Rayton,” said the captain sharply. 

Mr. Rayton understood. He had arisen from 
his lounging position against the rail, and in half 
a second he was by the side of his commander. 
Captain Harper nodded. The next instant Mr. 
Rayton leaped on the unsuspecting sailmaker’s 
mate, and before he could open his mouth to utter 
a single curse, the mate’s tremendous fist got him 
fairly on the point of the jaw, and he dropped like 
a log to the deck. The other men made an instant 
surge forward. Knives were drawn, belaying 
pins were grabbed from the main fife rail, but the 
surge was checked instantly, for the advancing 
men were confronted by a heavy pistol in Captain 
Harper’s hands, another held by Mr. Rayton, to 
say nothing of two smaller ones drawn promptly 
by Bob and Jack, who both moved forward to 
their commander’s side. The man at the wheel 
had abandoned the spokes the instant the men 
surged forward, and Mr. Harmon had grabbed 
them just in time to prevent disaster to the ship 
in the fresh breeze then blowing. 


120 BOB DASHAWAY, 

The captain did not give the men time to re- 
cover. 

“ Drop those knives and belaying pins to the 
deck,” he roared, “or I will open fire! Are you 
there, boys?” 

“ We are right here, sir,” answered Bob. 

“ Ready to fire when you give the word, sir,” 
answered Jack. 

The men stopped hesitatingly, but there was a 
wicked gleam of cold sunlight on the barrels 
of the four pistols and a wickeder gleam in 
the eyes of the two men and boys that held 
them. 

“ Drop those knives 1 ” roared the captain again. 
“ By the living God, you mutinous dogs, if they 
are not down on the decks by the time I count 
three, I will fire. One, two ” 

The knives and belaying pins went clattering 
to the deck before Captain Harper could speak 
the word “ three.” 

“ Now, get forward ! ” 

The men turned. 

“ On the run,” added the captain. 

The mutiny was over. From the time Mr. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


I2I 


Rayton struck until the time they broke, scarcely 
a minute had elapsed. 

“ Clap that villain in irons, Mr. Rayton ! ” said 
the captain, pointing to the senseless ringleader. 
“ Jack, step below to my cabin and fetch up a 
pair of handcuffs and anklecuffs you will find hang- 
ing from the bulkhead.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

Now, Mr. Rayton,” he added, as the boy re- 
appeared with the articles, with which the sense- 
less man was promptly ironed, “ call a couple of 
hands aft and stow this man below in the after- 
hold.” 

By this time the sailmaker’s mate had recovered 
consciousness. He opened his eyes and stared 
about him. When he realised where he was and 
what had happened, when he felt the irons on his 
hands and legs, he sat up and cursed fiercely. 

“ Belay that,” roared the captain, “ you muti- 
nous hound! You would try to run this ship, 
would you? Well, if you ever live to get back 
to the United States you will come near to hanging 
for your part in this morning’s work.” 

“ Forward, there! ” cried Mr. Rayton. “ Two 


122 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


hands lay aft, and throw this man down the after- 
hold, and one of you take the wheel. Whose 
trick was it ? ” 

“ Mine, sir,” answered an able seaman named 
Fills, who came shambling aft, but no one else 
observed the mate’s command. 

“ Why did you let go of the spokes, you in- 
fernal lubber?” said the mate, shaking his fist 
under his nose. “ Don’t you let me see you do a 
thing like that again ! Get to your station I ” 

The man shrank past him in fright and terror. 
Mr. Harmon yielded the wheel to him. 

“ It is your watch, Mr. Harmon,” said Mr. 
Rayton. 

‘‘ Pass the word forward,” said Captain Har- 
per, who had looked on approvingly, “ for two 
men of the watch to lay aft and bear a hand 
about it. Have them lower this man into the 
afterhold, give him enough bread and water to 
last him for the day, and leave him thereo” 

“ You, Clawflnger, fetch a man aft here,” cried 
Mr. Harmon. “ Shake a leg and come a-run- 
ning.” 

The backbone of the mutiny appeared to be 


TREASURE HUNTER 


123 


broken. Clawfinger, with another seaman, came 
aft in a hurry. By Mr. Harmon’s directions the 
hatch covering the afterhold was lifted, and 
Wethers, cursing and kicking, was dropped un- 
ceremoniously and roughly into it. The ship’s 
cook provided a pannikin of water and a small bag 
of hard bread, which was placed beside him. The 
hatch was clapped on, and he was left to his own 
devices. 

“ Now, Mr. Harmon,” said the captain, “ we’ll 
give the men something to do. They seem to be 
pining for work. Have the topmasts slushed, the 
rigging tarred down, the bright work scoured, and 
the ship painted wherever it needs it.” 

This was the nastiest and dirtiest work that 
could be given to a crew, and they were soon busily 
at it, but neither willingly nor cheerfully, it seemed. 

The situation was sufficiently serious. Captain 
Harper realised. The sailors’ sheath knives that 
were lying on the deck were thrown overboard, 
the belaying pins were replaced in the rails, and 
then Captain Harper, with Bob Dashaway, Jack 
Barrett, and Mr. Rayton, went below to discuss 
the situation. Before the captain left the deck, 


124 


BOB DASHAWAY 


he cast a long look ahead and to leeward. They 
were approaching the dangerous latitudes, and to 
the southward and westward black clouds were 
looming heavily. 

“ To add to our troubles,” he said, as he sur- 
veyed the horizon, “ we’ll probably find a terrific 
gale of wind blowing off the Cape.” 


CHAPTER IX 


THE MUTINY IS RENEWED 

There was no denying the serious character of 
the situation which confronted Captain Harper, 
his two officers, and the two boys. If he had been 
near enough to any civilised port to have made it 
practicable. Captain Harper would have put the 
ship about and headed for it at once. There he 
W'ould have discharged his crew and endeavoured 
to ship a better one, or at least one in which there 
would be no knowledge of the supposed treasure, 
which had so inflamed the minds of the men. But 
there was no such port anywhere available. Here 
they were, a solitary ship, down near Cape Horn, 
off the most lonely, desolate, and dangerous coast 
in the world. 

Captain Harper either had to yield the com- 
mand of the vessel by acceding to the men’s de- 
sires, or he had to continue on his sealing voyage. 
To give up the cruise would be to involve him in 


125 


126 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


more loss than he could by any means afford. 
Further, it would be a confession of weakness, 
ruinous to his reputation and intolerable to his 
pride. A captain who could not command his 
ship and master his crew was not in demand. Nor 
could he possibly comply with the wishes of the 
men, even if he so desired, for, as he and all those 
aft knew, the latitude and longitude were gone 
from the chart and to look for the island without 
them would be like hunting for a needle in a hay- 
stack. 

It had occurred to the captain to show the map 
to the crew, and point out that the latitude and 
longitude were missing, but he realised instantly 
that they would accuse him of having tom off the 
corner of the map, and he could not establish his 
innocence. All these other possibilities being elim- 
inated, there was nothing to do but to keep 
on. 

No precautions could be taken except enjoining 
upon both officers and boys the grave importance 
of keeping strictest possible watch all the time and 
of never going on deck without being armed. 

For several days nothing happened. The men 


TREASURE HUNTER 


127 

were as sullen and as insubordinate a lot in their 
manner and bearing as were ever gathered to- 
gether; even the cook and the steward exhibited the 
same antagonism as the others. 

The captain, with the assistance of the boys, 
who mingled more with the crew than the others, 
considered eveiy man on the ship carefully, and 
did not find in any one of them anything which 
would lead him to rate him a true man. 

Clawfinger, who was undoubtedly the ring- 
leader, behaved better than the rest. He obeyed 
orders with alacrity, though all of them promptly 
obeyed orders for that matter. It was necessary 
for them to do so, for they suddenly ran into one 
of the most furious of Cape Horn gales blowing 
directly westward and making a terrific lee shore 
out of the island, Tierra del Fuego. 

Captain Harper did not desire to make any 
westing, since the whole end of the South Ameri- 
can continent lay so close under his lee, and he 
made a desperate, hard fight to keep the Betsey 
from going on to that fearful shore. For five 
days she beat into the teeth of the storm, striving 
to make a good offing and to get far enough from 


128 BOB DASHA WAY, 

land for a clear run toward the South Shetlands. 
Several times the ship was only extricated from 
some rocky reef by the most skilful seamanship 
on the part of the captain and the officers and 
the most desperate work by the crew. All hands 
were more or less on deck all the time. The 
officers and the two boys never left the deck at 
all. The men could get some rest lying down 
between evolutions, but the group aft scarcely 
attempted to close an eye. 

After a week of such buffeting, the officers were 
thoroughly down and out. The crew were in 
bad shape, but in much better condition than the 
others. The violence of the storm abated some- 
what, and the peril from the lee shore grew less 
with every passing hour. No one had been able 
to take any observations of the sun, but the captain 
and the mates deemed that they were well to the 
eastward of the Cape at last. The captain, an 
oldish man, was almost dropping with fatigue. 
Mr. Harmon, a younger man of slender build, 
was in a worse shape; Mr. Rayton, a glutton for 
work and a man of prodigious strength, alone was 
in anything like good condition. The two young- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


129 

sters had enjoyed some sleep and they were more 
fit to stand a watch than the officers. 

“ Captain Harper,” said Mr. Rayton at sunset 
the sixth day from the Falklands, “ you have got 
to get some sleep, sir; I will take the first watch. 
You and Mr. Harmon go below, the two young- 
sters will stay with me.” 

Captain Harper hesitated. 

“ It is handsome of you to offer,” he said 
hoarsely. “ I really am about done for. If I 
can get four hours in my berth, I will be all 
right.” 

“ I don’t want to shirk,” said Mr. Harmon, 
making a valiant effort, “ but ” 

“ Lord love you, mate,” answered Mr. Rayton, 
“ you have done nobly. The Lord hasn’t given 
you strength like mine; you go below with the 
captain, the youngsters here are as tough as sole 
leather,” he laid a kindly hand on Bob and Jack, 
“ they’ll keep watch with me.” 

“We’ll be glad to, sir,” answered Bob; “you 
know you have made us turn in every night for 
an hour or two, and ” 

“ The boys and I will take care of the ship 


130 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


until midnight,” answered the mate. “ Then I 
will call you. Captain Harper, and at four o’clock 
Mr. Harmon will be able to take his watch.” 

“ I hate to do it, Rayton,” said Captain Har- 
per reluctantly, “ but I must, and as you are the 
freshest of the three it will have to be the way 
you say. For God’s sake, Mr. Rayton, keep a 
good watch, and you too, boys; the safety of the 
ship depends on you. I don’t think there is much 
danger from the reefs,” he added, looking for- 
ward where a little crew of men hung abaft the 
break of the forecastle talking earnestly among 
themselves, “ but from the men.” 

“ We have our weapons,” answered Mr. Ray- 
ton, “ and all that men and boys can do, we’ll do.” 

“ May God protect you ! ” said Captain Harper 
gravely. 

He was a religious man and not ashamed of it. 
He turned and entered the cabin, and Mr. Har- 
mon stumbled below to his berth. Mr. Rayton 
was left alone with the two boys. 

“ Stay aft here, Barrett,” said Mr. Rayton. 
“ Keep an eye on the man at the wheel. You 
come with me, Dashaway.” He walked forward 


TREASURE HUNTER 


131 

into the waist and hailed the crew. “ Eight 
bells ! ” he cried in his powerful voice. “ The 
watch off may now go below ” — all hands had 
been on deck all day — “ it’s going to be a murky 
night. I want a bright-eyed man at the foretop- 
mast head. 

It was apparent that the men off watch did not 
desire to leave their comrades who were to remain 
on deck, but there was something in the tone of 
the mate’s voice and something more in the menac- 
ing glance that he shot at them that made the 
idlers break for cover. There was no hurry about 
it, but still what he wanted was done. One of the 
men detached himself from the group on duty 
and clambered up the forerigging, taking his place 
on the double-reefed foretopsail yard, where he 
carefully scanned the sea ahead. 

The mate fearlessly went forward, although he 
kept his hand locked over the butt of his pistol 
in the pocket of his heavy pea-jacket, and dis- 
tributed the rest of the watch at various points. 
As they were in dangerous waters, he placed a look- 
out at each cathead and one at each gangway. 
The heavy weather required two hands at the 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


132 

wheel. There were ten men in the watch, and 
seven of them were thus disposed of. The rest 
formed a little group in the lee of the deck house 
or galley, and sprawled out on the deck as best 
they could, getting some needed sleep but still 
being ready for instant call. 

“ I hate to do it,” said Mr. Rayton to the two 
boys, “ but one of you must go for’ard on the 
to’gall’nt fo’c’s’l. There are only two men there, 
both of them will be for’ard opposite the cat- 
heads.” 

Both boys immediately volunteered. 

“ Let me go, sir,” cried Bob. 

“ No, it is my turn,” urged Jack. 

“ Dashaway, you are a little the heaviest, sup- 
pose you go. Never mind, my lad,” said the 
mate, turning to Jack, “ you shall have your turn 
presently. I shall keep Dashaway there only two 
hours and give you the second trick; meanwhile, 
I shall need you aft with me.” 

“ Very good, sir,” said Jack, greatly disap- 
pointed. 

“ Now, Dashaway,” said the mate, “ as you 
know, there are only two men on the forecastle. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


133 


stationed at the port and starboard catheads. You 
take your station amidships with your back against 
the rail of the fo’c’s’l, so that you can see the 
ladders at either side, and if either of the men 
for’ard of you leaves his station for any purpose, 
you order him back, and if he does not obey in- 
stantly, put a bullet into him. Is your pistol 
ready?” 

“ Yes, sir, ready and primed.” 

“ Very good, remember the safety of the ship 
depends upon you. In two hours Barrett here 
will relieve you.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” whispered Bob. 

The whole conversation had been carried on in 
a low tone so as not to be heard by any one on the 
deck. The youngster turned and ran fleetly for- 
ward. The two listeners heard him spring up the 
ladder and take his station. 

Mr. Rayton walked aft to the quarter-deck. 
He did not ascend to the poop deck, but he sent 
Barrett up there with orders to the lad to watch 
him, the mate, like a hawk and see that nobody 
attacked him from behind. Mr. Rayton stationed 
himself on the quarter-deck so as to be in reaching 


134 bob DASHAWAY, 

distance of Dashaway should the latter call, and 
also to be in position to oversee the steering of 
the ship. 

Although the gale had abated it was still blow- 
ing very hard, and the wind was very heavy. The 
ship, under double-reefed topsails, was lumbering 
through the darkness at a great rate. It was get- 
ing darker and darker every hour. The weather 
was raw and cold in that high latitude, and pres- 
ently a thick grey mist began to drive across the 
angry seas. 

From time to time, Mr. Ray ton, keeping his 
right side close to the rail and depending upon 
Barrett, who leaned over the rail above him, 
keenly alert, to watch his back, hailed the fore- 
castle. 

‘‘FoFard there!” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” Bob Dashaway’s clear voice 
would ring out. 

“ Are you keeping a bright lookout? ” 

“ Bright lookout ahead, sir,” the boy would re- 
ply. 

Of course, Mr. Rayton knew that a bright look- 
out would be kept, but he wanted to know from 


TREASURE HUNTER 


135 

time to time that all was well forward. Thus 
passed an hour and a half of the watch. No 
bells had been struck in the storm, and the mate 
had about made up his mind that it was time for 
Barrett to go forward and relieve Dashaway. 
Thereupon he hailed the forecastle, intending to 
direct the youngster to come aft. 

“ Fo’c’s’l there! ” he roared. 

There was no answer! The mate waited a sec- 
ond, and then cried out in his deep, powerful 
voice : 

“Dashaway!” 

Again there was no reply. The boy couldn’t 
be asleep. Something had happened. With a 
word to Barrett the mate leaped forward in the 
gangway, drawing his pistol as he started. 

Bob Dashaway had rather a lonely watch of it. 
He was fearfully tired and frightfully sleepy, and 
it was only by the most superhuman resolution 
that he kept his feet and kept awake. It was the 
longest two hours that he had ever spent in his 
life. Toward the close of it the man on the lee 
cathead turned about and made a step toward the 
boy. 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


136 

“Get back there!” said Dashaway deter- 
minedly, at once wide awake and on the alert. 

The roaring of the wind through the top ham- 
per kept his words from being carried aft. 

“ I jest want to git a light for my pipe, sir,” 
said the man respectfully enough, but still continu- 
ing his progress aft. 

For answer Dashaway whipped out his pistol 
and levelled it at the man. 

“ Get back,” he said shortly, “ or I’ll blow a 
hole through you.” 

“ Come, come now, sir,” returned the man per- 
suasively, “ you wouldn’t go for to do a thing like 
that to a shipmate, an’ ” 

For answer Bob pulled the trigger. There was 
a snap, a flash in the pan, and for some reason 
the weapon missed fire. Bob opened his mouth to 
cry for help. At the same time he raised his hand 
to throw the pistol at the approaching man. The 
next second a black body dropped out of the 
heavens 1 

The man on the foretopsail yard had come * 
sliding down the forestay right over Bob. He 
kicked out with his heavy-booted foot and struck 



“Treasure!” exclaimed the man, his eyes gleaming, 
“Lemme have another look at that map, 

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TREASURE HUNTER 


137 


the lad on the shoulder, throwing him violently 
to the main deck below. The next minute the 
man who had spoken was upon him, but Bob was 
incapable of resistance ; he was knocked completely 
senseless. 

Casting off the foreroyal halyards the man 
lashed the boy hard and fast. He had scarcely 
completed this work when the mate hailed, as has 
been mentioned. 

The two men had hoped to accomplish their 
task before being called to account. They stood 
uncertainly. The next moment they made out the 
dark form of Mr. Rayton coming forward. He 
came on the run, but he was encumbered by heavy 
boots and his thick clothing, including the long pea- 
jacket necessitated by the inclement weather. 

It was easy enough for a barefoot man, moving 
lightly as he stole out from the lee of the deck 
house unobserved, to overtake him. The pur- 
suer’s footfalls made no sound on the deck. He 
had a heavy belaying pin in his hand, and just as 
the mate reached the ladder leading to the top- 
gallant forecastle, he struck him heavily across 
the back of the head. 


138 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


The mate pitched forward, the ship gave a sud- 
den roll, and he was hurled senseless and bleeding 
into the lee scuppers. Two or three men lashed 
him also; binding his feet, they then tied him to 
a ring bolt so that he would not be rolled around 
like a log by the unsteady ship. 

Jack Barrett had heard the mate’s hail, but 
noted that no answer came. He had then seen 
the mate start forward. What happened there- 
after was invisible to him on account of the mist 
and the thick darkness. The mist was turning into 
a fierce, sleety, driving rain. 

The boy halted after a moment’s hesitation. 

“Fo’c’s’l! For’ard there!” he cried. “Mr. 
Rayton I Bob 1 ” 

There was no answer. He turned and sprang 
to the ladder leading from the poop to the quarter- 
deck. His pistol was out. Two or three forms 
suddenly appeared below him at the foot of the 
ladder. 

“ Is that you, Mr. Rayton? ” cried the boy. 

“ Come down there, you young pup 1 ” some 
one rasped. “ Quick or ” 

Taking sudden aim Barrett levelled his pistol 


TREASURE HUNTER 


139 


and pulled the trigger. There was a shriek, a 
groan, a curse, showing that somebody had been 
hurt. Two or three men sprung up the ladder, 
and in an instant the boy was seized and overpow- 
ered. He made a ferocious struggle, kicking and 
fighting manfully, but to no avail. 


CHAPTER X 


THE MEN MAKE CONDITIONS 

iThe shot, or the struggle, or both, immediately 
aroused the captain, who had lain down in his 
berth fully dressed so as to be prepared for any 
emergency. Seizing his heavy pistol he sprang 
to his feet, threw open the door, and entered the 
main cabin, which was dimly lighted by a hanging 
oil lamp. As he did so the outer door was thrust 
violently open, and several burly figures appeared 
in the entrance. The foremost was Wethers and 
without his irons. He had been released evidently, 
just how, did not at the moment matter. 

Captain Harper levelled his pistol on the instant. 

“ Stay where you are, you mutinous scoun- 
drels ! ” he cried. 

“ Cap’n Harper,” began Wethers, “ we are in 
possession of the ship. Mr. Rayton an’ the two 
boys is lashed hard an’ fast on deck. Mr. Har- 
mon is sleepin’ below locked in his cabin, an’ there’s 
140 


BOB DASHA WAY 


141 

a man with a belayin’ pin in front of it, an’ if he 
sticks his head out he’ll git his brains knocked 
out. We’ve come to have a leetle talk with 
you.” 

Captain Harper had the man covered with his 
pistol, and he kept him covered during his long 
and insolent speech. 

“ If I pull this trigger,” he said grimly, “ you 
will have no talks with me or with any one else 
in this world.” 

“ Gimme leave, sir,” said Wethers coolly, 
“ that wouldn’t do you no good.” 

“ Why?” 

“ Becuz if anything happens to me, accordin’ 
to my orders, the men for’ard will quietly drop 
the mate an’ the two boys overboard lashed as 
they are.” 

“You villains! You murdering villains!” 
cried the captain, his face flaming. 

“ An’,” continued the man imperturbably, “ it 
wouldn’t be long afore you’d foller suit yourself. 
Now you might as well be reasonable; we’ve come 
here for a talk with you, an’ we’re goin’ to have 
it.” 


142 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“Who’s we?” asked Captain Harper. 

“ Me an’ Clawfinger an’ the crew.” 

“Ah! he is in it too, is he?” 

“ Not any more’n the rest of us,” was the quick 
answer. “ Now, are we goin’ to have some plain 
free speech with you, or are we not? ” 

Captain Harper reflected quickly. In some 
way these men had got possession of the ship. He 
was one against a score. True, he had a pistol, 
but he suddenly discovered that one of the men 
before him had a weapon — the mate’s had been 
picked up evidently. The captain could undoubt- 
edly kill Wethers, the ringleader, and he could 
make a desperate fight against the others, but in 
the end he would be overpowered. And certainly 
if it came to a fight the men would surely kill 
him, and they would probably kill the mate and the 
two boys. “ While there is life there is hope ” 
is a maxim as true as it is old; while Captain 
Harper was living there were some things he 
could do ; dead, he was useless. A living dog was 
better than a dead lion. Discretion was the better 
part of valour. To parley was necessary, in fact 
inevitable. He decided to try It. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


143 

‘‘ First I want to know what you have done to 
the mate and the two lads? ” he said. 

“ The mate got a crack over the head, one boy 
had the breath knocked out of him, an* the other 
was beat up a little in a scuffle, but none of ’em has 
been hurt much ; on the contrary, one of the crew. 
Fills, as good a seaman as lives, has been shot 
by young Barrett. But all this ain’t neither here 
nor there, we’re goin’ to talk with you, an’ we’re 
goin’ to do it now.” 

“ Very well, then,” said the captain, stepping 
to the head of the table and sitting down. “ Those 
who are going to talk to me can come in the cabin 
and stand there.” 

He pointed to the open space at the foot of the 
table. 

“ Well, I guess we’ll fix the conditions of the 
talkin’,” began Wethers, entering the cabin, fol- 
lowed by Clawfinger and a few others, while the 
rest of the men crowded about the doorway. 

“No,” said the captain, “ I will fix them ! You 
will talk my way or you’ll not talk at all.” 

“We will, will we?” menacingly. 

“ You will. Mr. Rayton, Mr. Harmon, and 


144 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


I are the only navigators on the ship. I know 
what you want, it’s that cursed treasure you’re 
after. There isn’t a man amongst you that can 
navigate the ship. You can’t get along without 
us, so you will do as I say or we won’t talk.” 

“ We can kill you where you stand.” 

“ Doubtless, but that won’t do you any good. 
You need one of us, and as I am the only one that 
has the chart you are after, or knows where it is, 
you need me.” 

“ Now what’s the use of crossin’ the old man? ” 
here interposed Clawfinger suavely. 

“ Oh, very well,” said Wethers sulkily, “ have 
it your own way.” 

“ Well, I want you to understand that I am to 
be captain of this ship hereafter as before, and I 
won’t stand any more of your insolence. Get at 
the meat of what you have to say and be quick 
about it,” said Captain Harper, whose pistol never 
left his hand. 

“ First of all, then, we wants that ’ere treasure 
chart. Next we wants a course laid for it as 
straight as this old hooker’ll sail,” was the not 
unexpected reply. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


145 


“And what then?” 

“ Why, then we’ll purceed to the island, load 
up with the treasure, come back to Valparaiso, or 
some Spanish port on the South American coast, 
we’ll scuttle the ship near some port, take to the 
boats, every man will take his share of the plunder, 
we’ll scatter, an’ ” 

“ What do I get out of it ? What will my mates 
get out of it? What will the boys get out of it? ” 
asked Captain Harper, coolly enough. 

“ You’ll git your lives,” roared Wethers bru- 
tally. 

“ No, no, not at all,” again interposed Claw- 
finger, who was the more adroit scoundrel of the 
two. “ If you serve us faithfully, we’ll give you 
a fair share of the treasure and you can do 
what you like with it, just as the rest of us 
do.” 

“ And if I do not accede to your terms? ” 

“ We’ll drop the prisoners overboard, you and 
Mr. Harmon can follow suit,” answered Wethers. 
“ Then we’ll hunt the ship over until we git the 
chart, we’ll pick up a navigator somewheres from 
some South American port, an’ ” 


146 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ What’s the use of talking about that? ” inter- 
rupted Clawfinger. “ The cap’n is a sensible gen- 
tleman, he’ll do what we asks. It’s to his interests 
as much as ours.” 

“ And if I do,” said Captain Harper, “ you will 
agree that none of us is to be harmed? ” 

Wethers growled out something but Clawfinger 
instantly replied in the affirmative. 

“ I will let you know in the morning just what 
I will do,” said the captain at last. 

“ You got to decide that now,” roared Wethers 
passionately. “ Hand out that chart an’ ” 

“ No, no, mate,” interposed Clawfinger again. 
“ Give the captain time. If he’ll agree to hand 
over his pistol an’ stay in his cabin yere he can 
say what he’ll do in the mornin’. That’ll be time 
enough for us.” 

“ Hand over my pistol I ” roared the captain 
suddenly — “not at the present stage of the negotia- 
tions. Now you clear out of the cabin, and do it 
quick! I will give you my answer in the morn- 
ing. You can station all the scoundrels you want 
outside of the door to see that I don’t come out, 
but by the Lord, don’t let any of you come in here 


TREASURE HUNTER 


147 


until I give you the word except at his peril. And 
if a hair of the officers or boys is hurt, by the living 
God, I will fire the ship ! ” 

He lifted his pistol again at the two men. 
Clawfinger instantly shrank behind the huge bulk 
of Wethers. 

“ In the mornin’, then,” growled out the latter, 
“ you’ll hear from us, an’ we’ll hear from you or 
there’ll be trouble.” 

He backed out of the cabin adroitly enough 
and slammed the door. 

Captain Harper ran to the door, which had been 
left unlocked, locked it, turned out the light in 
the main cabin, and retreated to his stateroom, the 
door of which he kept open and through which 
he could see the door that gave entrance to the 
deck. He sat down on a chair in the stateroom 
to think the matter over. Force was useless. If 
he refused to accede to their demands he did not 
doubt the men would do as they said. He could 
shoot one man and perhaps manage to do away 
with another, but against twenty or more he was 
helpless. His death would be a signal for the 
death of the two mates and the two boys. His 


148 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


natural desire, of course, was to fight, but it was 
not to be thought of. 

We know of old that Captain Harper was a 
resourceful man. He resolved to temporise and 
to try strategy. He unlocked his desk and drew 
out the map. He would have to hand it over 
in the morning. It had no latitude or longitude 
on it. What the men would think he could not 
be sure, but he could make a good guess. That 
they would accuse him of having mutilated it to 
render it unavailable, and they would kill him and 
the rest in an attempt to make him disclose the 
latitude and longitude was more than prob- 
able. 

The only man aboard who had ever seen the 
map, except the officers aft, was Clawfinger. He 
had not enjoyed a very close look at it, and the 
captain had carefully concealed the torn corner 
from him. As he stood and stared at the chart 
an idea came to him. Among his other posses- 
sions was an old Bible bound in boards covered 
with thin, yellow parchment. He whipped out 
his knife, cut a sheet of the parchment from the 
cover, and trimmed it to the exact shape and size 


TREASURE HUNTER 


149 


of the original map and chart. He examined the 
two under the light; both were soiled and old. 
The colour differed and the texture of the leather, 
still no ignorant sailor would suspect a substitu- 
tion, especially as there would be no chance of 
comparison. 

Having this piece of parchment. Captain Har- 
per, who was no mean map maker, proceeded to 
copy the old map on the newer leather; He had no 
red ink, but it was not difficult to open a vein and 
collect enough blood for the purpose. 

The original map appeared to have been drawn 
on the parchment with some sort of a steel needle, 
and the captain had very little difficulty in making 
a very fair imitation of it, which in the absence 
of the original would easily pass muster among 
an ignorant and illiterate crew. In the corner he 
traced the latitude and longitude, making a guess 
at what would seem a likely spot for the probable 
location of such an island. Having completed this 
original forgery to his satisfaction, he dried it 
thoroughly, and examined his work with great 
pride. 

He placed the latitude low enough and the Ion- 


150 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


gitude far enough west to give him plenty of time 
in which to take advantage of anything that might 
possibly turn up. He had to work slowly and 
with great care. It took him some hours to make 
the copy, and then after he had completed it, he 
rubbed it and crumpled it as much as he could to 
make it look older. He felt that he had done all 
that was possible. 

A long time thereafter he sat quietly in the 
cabin, perfecting the plan, and thinking upon his 
course. He could tell by the uneasy pitching of 
the ship that the wind was rising again, and he 
grew anxious for daybreak, knowing as no one else 
on board did, the peril of these seas. A glance 
at his watch finally told him that half after five 
had arrived. He had extinguished his lantern as 
soon as he had made his map, and he could see 
through his cabin air ports the faint grey light of 
a cold, wet, stormy dawn outside. 

Carefully concealing the original map in his 
desk, he picked up the facsimile and stepped out 
into the main cabin, went to the door, unlocked it, 
and threw it open. A sailor in front of the door 
lifted a marlinspike threateningly. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


151 

“ It’s all right,” said Captain Harper. “ I 
just want to speak with Wethers and Claw- 
finger.” 

“ Wethers, Clawfinger! ” bellowed the sailor. 

Clawfinger came running aft from the lee of the 
galley with a tin pot of smoking coffee in his 
hand. Wethers, who had the watch evidently, 
turned the deck over to an old “ A.B.” * and fol- 
lowed. 

“ Come in,” said Captain Harper, turning away 
from the entrance and taking his place at the head 
of the table. 

The men entered the outer cabin and stood 
uncertainly. 

“ Here is the chart,” said the captain. “ Not 
so fast,” he added as the two seamen started for- 
ward eagerly. “ I have agreed to accept your 
terms, provided you accept mine.” 

‘‘An’ what are they?” 

“ I am to have the sole run of this cabin. The 
boys and the mates are to be sent aft here. I 
am to navigate the ship, and as such I am to have 
a right upon deck whenever I want to be there. 

* Able seaman, that is. 


152 BOB DASHAWAY, 

Our meals are to be sent to us from the galley as 
usual.” 

“ Granted in part,” said Clawfinger. “ You 
can have the boys with you, but the mates has 
got to go into irons in the afterhold. No, there’s 
no use arguin’ with us, Cap’n Harper,” he con- 
tinued as the captain opened his mouth to protest, 
“ some of the men is for killing all of you out o’ 
hand, but I don’t want no murder done. The 
mates will be fed an’ looked after proper, but we 
can’t allow the three of you to be together. The 
boys is different. They are only youngsters, an’ 
we can take care of you all right. It’s that or 
nothin’.” 

“ You promise me that the mates will be well 
treated? ” 

“ I’ve said it an’ I mean it. What do you 
say? ” 

“ Very good,” said Captain Harper, glad to 
have carried part of his proposal, being really 
helpless to carry any, “ there is the map.” 

He pitched it across the table and the two men 
pounced upon it.” 

“ It’s jest as I told you. Wethers,” said Claw- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


153 


finger excitedly, pointing with his hideous de- 
formed digit. “ There’s the cave in the harbour — 
see that A — and you cee what it spells, ^ Marigold 
lies here,^ at the top.” 

He traced the words out slowly. 

“ I can’t make nothin’ out of it,” said Wethers, 
“ me not bein’ able to read nor write.” 

“ It’s jest as I told him, ain’t it, Cap’n Har- 
per?” 

“ That’s what it says,” answered Captain Har- 
per. 

“ Down yere in the corner is the latitood and 
longitood. You kin read figgers, I take it?” 

“ Aye, aye,” said Wethers, slowly stumbling out 
the numbers as he scanned the paper. 

“ The man this plan was took from said he 
seen it, a whole shipload of ingots o’ gold, with 
pearls and di’monds an’ perecious stones an’ pieces- 
o’-eight — Spanish dollars, you know, doubloons. 
Lord love ye, man, there’s enough there to make 
every mother’s son of us rich for the balance o’ 
our lives. You couldn’t hardly throw it away fast 
enough to git rid of it. There’ll be enough for 
yer an’ the officers an’ the young gents, too,” con- 


154 


BOB DASHAWAY 


tinued Clawfinger. “ You done well, you’ve made 
a wise ch’ice, sir.” 

“ Thank you,” said the captain grimly, his 
fingers itching to pull the trigger and blow the 
ruffian out of existence. “ Perhaps now you will 
send the boys aft to me.” 

“ You can have the young cubs in a minute,” 
growled Wethers. 

“ I’d like to have a chance to tell the mates 
about the arrangements.” 

“ You can send one o’ the boys to ’em, if you 
likes, arter we’ve had breakfast an’ can git things 
settled down an’ in order,” said Clawfinger, turn- 
ing away. “ Meanwhile, we got ter git out on 
deck. All hands is on watch, an’ in this thick 
weather, with this gale a-blowin’ an’ the shore 
under our lee, we can’t be too careful.” 

“ Indeed you can’t,” said Captain Harper warn- 
ingly, “ for if you do not look out, you will bring 
up on some reef, and then God help us all.” 

“ We’ll keep a sharp lookout, never fear,” 
growled Wethers, turning away from the cabin. 


CHAPTER XI 


WRECKED OFF CAPE HORN 

A FEW minutes after this Bob and Jack entered 
the cabin. Of the two, Bob was in much the 
worse condition. He had recovered consciousness, 
but his head still ached fearfully from the blow he 
had received, and his legs and arms were stiff and 
sore from the tight lashing that had been so 
roughly placed around him. 

Jack was in much better shape, although he, too, 
had been rather hardly used. He had not been 
knocked senseless, however, neither had he been 
so tightly lashed. Both boys were very much 
ashamed of themselves. They seemed to feel that 
the seizure of the ship and the success of the 
mutiny was due to some carelessness or negligence 
on their part. 

“ Captain Harper,” began Bob, ‘‘ you can’t 
think how mortified we feel at having let those 
men get the upper hand of us.” 

155 


156 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Aye, aye, sir,” Jack chimed in, “ and we 
haven’t any excuse at all to offer.” 

“ You don’t have to offer any excuses,” inter- 
rupted Captain Harper kindly. “ I don’t exactly 
know how it all happened, lads, but I am sure both 
of you boys did your full duty.” 

“ Thank you, sir,” said Bob gratefully. “ I 
had the watch on the fo’c’s’l. We had a man at 
each cathead and one man aloft. By Jiminy,” he 
exclaimed, turning to Jack, “ that’s what did it.” 

“What do you mean?” asked the captain. 

“ The man at the port cathead left his station, 
sir. I ordered him back, and as he didn’t obey I 
drew my pistol ; it missed fire. I started to throw 
it at him, but before I could do it something fell 
on me from the forestay and knocked me sense- 
less.” 

“ It was the man up aloft. You couldn’t pos- 
sibly have prevented that,” said Captain Harper. 

“ And Mr. Rayton then hailed the forecastle, 
and not hearing anything, ran forward,” said 
Jack eagerly. “ Some one, I think, stepped out 
of the deck house and struck him with a belaying 
pin and knocked him senseless. I ran to the lad- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


157 


der and had my pistol out. The whole watch 
below had come on deck, they made a run at me, 
and I am sure I hit one of them, but well — here 
we are, sir.” 

“ And thank God, you are both here,” answered 
Captain Harper. “ Our situation is desperate, but 
it is by no means hopeless. In the first place, they 
have no navigator among them, and it is impos- 
sible for them to reach the island they want to 
find without one of us. If they spare one of us 
they’ve got to spare us all ; in fact, they have agreed 
to do so for the present at least. I have arranged 
with them that you two shall live aft with me 
here. I am to navigate the ship to the island.” 

“ But, sir,” began Bob respectfully, “ asking 
your pardon for questioning you, you do not know 
the latitude or longitude of the island.” 

“ I’m guessing at it now,” smiled Captain Har- 
per back at him. 

“ I don’t understand,” said the boy, greatly mys- 
tified. 

“ Last night,” explained the captain, “ I made 
a copy of the chart, which I gave to them this 
morning. I put in a fancy latitude and longitude, 


158 BOB DASHA WAY, 

and we are supposed to be trying to find that.” 

“ Well done, sir! ” exclaimed both boys, smiling 
brightly. “ And you have kept the real chart, 
sir?” 

“ Exactly,” answered the captain. “ I knew 
that if I gave them the real chart with the part 
torn off, they would accuse me of having torn it, 
and they would probably murder us all in the en- 
deavour to get it, they would be so angry and dis- 
appointed.” 

“ That was a smart trick, sir,” said Bob. 

“ Well, weVe played some tricks before, haven’t 
we, lads ? ” 

“ That’s right, captain, we certainly have.” 

‘‘ But excuse me. Captain Harper ” began 

Jack. 

“ Speak your mind out, lad,” said the captain. 
“ This is a council of war and I want you to speak 
freely.” 

“ What do you hope to gain by this trick, then ? ” 
asked Jack. 

“ Well, you see, I can sail this ship to that lati- 
tude and longitude, or I can sail it to any latitude 
or longitude I want, they’ll never know the differ- 


TREASURE HUNTER 159 

ence. I may sail to the Sandwich Islands, for in- 
stance.” 

“ Oh ! I see,” answered the boy, beginning to 
comprehend. 

“ And besides,” continued the captain, “ the 
thing we want now most of all is time, time to see 
where we stand, time to hit upon some better plan, 
to devise some definite course of action; that is the 
most important thing for us, and this little plan 
of mine will give us practically all the time we 
want. You understand that I put the latitude and 
longitude far enough away in the Pacific for a long 
voyage.” 

The boys laughed gleefully. 

“Captain Harper, you are a wonder!” they 
exclaimed. 

But the captain did not laugh in return; on the 
contrary, he looked exceedingly grave. 

“ Our situation is still most serious,” he ex- 
plained. “ We three are to be confined to this 
cabin except when I am allowed to go out and take 
a shot at the sun and work out our position. Mr. 
Rayton and Mr. Harmon are stowed away in the 
afterhold, and I don’t doubt they have double- 


i6o BOB DASHAWAY, 

ironed them. The cook will furnish us such ra- 
tions as he is willing to give us, and one of you 
boys has permission to go every day to see the 
mates with their meals. Of course, you have lost 
your weapons.” 

“ Yes, sir,” answered the boys regretfully; “ they 
took them both away from us.” 

“ Well, as it happens,” said the captain, “ I have 
a brace of very fine pistols in my cabin, which 
they know nothing about, and no man is to be 
allowed to come into this cabin under pain of 
death without my permission. If we could release 
Mr. Rayton and Mr. Harmon, we would have a 
fighting chance,, but for the present we must play 
a waiting game. How is the weather outside?” 

“ Very thick and nasty, sir,” answered Bob. 

“ Blowing hard, nearly a gale of wind, sir,” 
replied Jack. 

“ And the mist coming down heavier every 
minute until it is almost like a rain,” added Bob. 

“ I can see by the heaving and pitching of the 
ship that she is making heavy weather of it,” said 
the captain. “And we are on starboard tack?” 

“ Yes, sir,” answered Barrett. “ Mr. Rayton 


TREASURE HUNTER 


i6i 


said he wanted to get as much sea room as pos- 
sible, and he thought the shore was pretty close 
under our lee.” 

“ Aye,” said the captain, “ that is our chief 
danger. If there’s any current hereabouts, and I 
don’t know from experience, because this is the 
first time I have ever tried rounding the Horn, 
it will be doubtless setting in shore. It would be a 
sad thing for us all if we should bring up on some 
of those deserted islands around the Cape. Fetch 
me the chart from the desk yonder.” 

When Bob brought it to him, he unrolled it, 
spread it out on the table, and studied it long and 
carefully. 

“ We ought to be about here,” he said, pointing 
with his finger. “ See how the land trends to the 
east’ard. I don’t like it at all,” he continued. 

“ Who will be conning the ship. Wethers or 
Clawfinger, sir?” 

“ They are both fine seamen,” said the captain, 
“ but still I think I will give them a word of ad- 
vice. All I have on earth is in this ship and I 
don’t want to see her piled up on Cape Horn.” 

There was a knock at the cabin door, and on 


i 62 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


being bidden to enter the cabin, the steward came 
in with a pot of coffee and some ship’s biscuits. 
He set them down on the table and promised more 
varied and substantial fare later, saying this was 
all the cook could do in the rough weather pre- 
vailing. He then turned to leave the cabin. 

“Wait! ” said the captain. “ Ask Wethers or 
Clawfinger to come here for a minute.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” said the man, saluting respect- 
fully enough as he went out. 

Presently Wethers himself came into the cabin 
again. 

“Well, what do you want now?” he snarled 
insolently. 

“ Look here,” said the captain, pointing to the 
chart. “ According to my calculations we are just 
about there. See how the land trends eastward. 
Your true course will be due east or if possible 
to the north’ard of east.” 

“ How the devil can we lay sich a course with 
the wind blowin’ a whole gale straight from the 
eastward? ” 

“ Then you’d better keep her on the starboard 
tack for all you’re worth.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


163 

Wethers studied the chart long and earnestly. 

“You understand?” asked the captain. 

“ I understand,” he growled with an oath, and 
turned and flung himself out of the room. 

The captain shook his head, his jaw set grimly. 

“ My hands ached to clutch the villain by the 
throat while he was here and settle with him.” 

“ It wouldn’t be a bad plan, sir,” said Bob 
eagerly, “ and if they came in one by one, we 
could get all of them.” 

“We could probably get two or three that way, 
then the balance would come in a body and that 
would be the end of it. Well, let us have some 
coffee and ship’s biscuits.” 

He produced cups from his private locker, 
shoved them along the table with a gesture, and 
invited the boys to fall to. 

“ I shall be on tenterhooks of anxiety,” he said 
between mouthfuls, “ until we get an offing and 
are able to round the Horn. Once in the Pacific, 
it will be plain sailing or at least until we get 
among the South Sea islands. Out here every 
moment is fraught with danger and every minute 
the danger grows greater.” 


164 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


He got up from the table and paced nervously 
up and down the cabin. 

“ By Heavens ! ” he exclaimed. “ I would give 
anything to be out there on deck. There is so 
much danger, and those reckless ruffians are per- 
haps even now throwing away my ship.” 

He stepped to the door of his cabin, opened it, 
and looked out. A man armed with a belaying 
pin barred the way. 

“ I just want to take a look at the wind and 
weather,” said the captain, standing in the door- 
way and staring ahead, the boys crowding by his 
side. 

It was full morning now, but the air was grey 
with a misty, driving rain blown in wild, whirling 
sheets by the fierce wind which came screaming 
over the starboard bow. The yards were 
braced sharp up and the starboard tacks were 
boarded. 

Since the men had seized the ship, however, 
there was a slovenly air about everything, some- 
thing indefinable but still apparent to a seaman. 
Wethers had the watch and was lounging care- 
lessly on the quarter-deck, getting such shelter as 


TREASURE HUNTER 165 

he could from the bulwarks, the high poop deck 
being too exposed for his fancy. 

“ Wethers,” said the captain. 

“ Say Mr. Wethers I ” roared the man inso- 
lently. 

“If you don’t get your watch out and sweat 
those braces and sheets aft to the last limit, you 
cannot keep her up to the wind. Look at her 
now, see how she is falling off ! ” 

“ You tend to the navigation,” said Wethers 
insolently, “ and we’ll sail the ship. Get back 
in there ! There’s no sun, you ain’t wanted now.” 

Biting his lips to stifle his rage. Captain Harper 
stepped back. 

“You promised to let one of the boys speak 
to the mates,” he said. 

“ Aye,” said Wethers gruffly. “ Dashaway, 
you go for’ard to the galley an’ git a pot of coffee 
an’ some hard bread, an’ take it below to the after- 
hold, an’ don’t linger around them mates neither; 
you git up on deck in a hurry, or I’ll send below 
after you.” 

Bob Dashaway was a fearless boy. To go was 
something like trusting himself to a den of lions. 


i66 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


but he did not hesitate. He sprang past Captain 
Harper and the man who had given him the order. 
He got a pot of coffee from the cook and plunged 
down the main hatch and kept on going until he 
reached the afterhold. He made his way aft over 
the dunnage until he came to a comparatively 
clear space and there he found the two mates in 
double irons. 

They were in entire ignorance of what had hap- 
pened, of the details rather, and were greatly re- 
lieved to see him. 

“ I haven’t a minute to stay,” said Bob, hurriedly 
setting down the coffee. “ Captain Harper made 
a false map of the island and gave it to them 
with some latitude and longitude on it; he has the 
real map still. They agreed to spare our lives 
if he would sail the ship to the island, and he 
agreed to do it. One of us is to see you every day 
to bring your meals. The captain says to cheer 
up and he will get us all out of the scrape 
yet.” 

“ Next time you come below,” said Mr. Ray- 
ton, “ bring a file. Tell the captain we are all 
right and when he wants us we will be ready.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 167 

“ Below there ! ” bellowed a voice. “ What 
are you doin’ ? ” 

“ I am coming, sir,” answered Dashaway. 
“ Hard job making way over the cargo with the 
ship tumbling so.” 

“ Belay your jaw tackle, you young whelp,” 
cried one of the seamen, “ and git up on deck.” 

Bob made the best speed possible, but he was 
not quick enough to suit the sailor, who had a 
rope’s end in his hand, and as he stepped out over 
the hatch combing, the sailor struck him violently 
with it. The boy’s face flushed. He clenched 
his teeth, balled his fist, and for a moment made 
as if to leap at the man; indeed, so fiercely resent- 
ful was his manner and bearing that the sailor fell 
back a step, but Bob controlled himself. He knew 
there was no use in resenting the blow, so he 
turned and walked aft followed by the laughter 
of the sailors. Whether the laughter had been 
for him because he had been struck, or for the 
man who had failed to repeat the blow, he could 
not tell. 

He said nothing to the captain about the blow; 
it was no use worrying the captain about little 


i68 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


things like that, but he delivered Mr. Rayton’s 
message to the effect that the two were in double 
irons but otherwise all right, and if the captain 
would get a file to them they could file off the 
irons, and so would be able to free themselves, and 
he could count on them when he needed them. 

“ I haven’t got a file,” said the captain, “ there’s 
some in the carpenter’s kit, of course, and prob- 
ably one in the arms chest, but the key of the 
arms chest was stolen evidently. However, I hap- 
pen to have a duplicate key, and we’ll manage to 
get it to them presently somehow. Now, I want 
you boys to turn in and get some rest. I take it 
you were awake most of the night.” 

“ We are not sleepy, sir,” said Jack. ‘ 

“ I don’t suppose you are, but it will be lots 
better for you and for me too, for you are my 
main dependence now, and you must be in good 
shape for any demand that may be made upon 
you.” He pulled out his watch. “ It is only six 
bells now. I don’t suppose they will bring us 
any breakfast for an hour or two and an hour or 
two of sleep is worth a great deal; take it when- 
ever you can get it. We must keep watch and 


TREASURE HUNTER 169 

watch in here anyway. When I am sleeping you 
two must be on the alert, and now that you are 
going, I will keep the cabin.” 

The boys were more tired than they thought, 
for after dropping down in their bunks they im- 
mediately fell into a good, sound sleep. 

Captain Harper paced up and down the cabin, 
thinking deeply. Various plans presented them- 
selves to him; he pondered them long and care- 
fully, rejecting them one after another, for none 
of them seemed to him to afford a way out of the 
tremendous difficulties in which they were involved. 
Nor was he able to think very clearly because of 
his ever increasing anxiety for the safety of the 
ship. 

The gale was blowing harder and harder. A 
sailor sometimes realises things by instinct, and 
Captain Harper divined that the Betsey was set- 
ting to leeward all the time. He tried once again 
to go on deck, but permission was denied him. 
With oaths and curses. Wethers bade him go back 
into his cabin and stay there. 

The captain took some comfort from the fact 
that Clawfinger and Wethers were both on deck 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


170 

and that both watches were on the alert He had 
heard the yards being properly braced, and he had 
had time to notice that the best hands wefe at 
the wheel, and that the ship was being steered 
with as great a nicety as if he himself had been 
in command; still he was not satisfied. 

His uneasiness had evidently been communi- 
cated to Wethers and Clawfinger. The captain’s 
position was most unhappy. A prime seaman, 
accustomed to depending upon himself in emergen- 
cies, he could scarcely endure being shut up in the 
cabin while two men, good enough seamen doubt- 
less, but never before in command, had charge of 
his ship under such dangerous circumstances. If 
the fog had lifted he would have felt more at 
ease, but the ship was running wildly, and prac- 
tically in the dark. He acknowledged himself that 
she had to keep on as she was, for with the wind 
blowing as it did, to heave would be to drive down 
on some lee shore. Perhaps she would go ashore 
anyway, for the waters thereabouts were terribly 
rough and filled with rocky islands and reefs. 

Walking nervously up and down the narrow 
limits of the main cabin like a caged lion, his medi- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


171 

tations were suddenly interrupted by a frightened 
scream from forward. 

The man on watch at the lee cathead was so 
startled and appalled by what he saw that he 
raised his voice so high and shrill that the captain, 
who was unconsciously expecting something of the 
kind, heard the hail above the roar of the storm. 
The cry was one of the most frightening and ter- 
rible of any that can come to the ear of a sailor, 
for this is what the man roared over and over in 
frantic terror : 

Breakers! Breakers! Breakers ahead! 
Breakers to port! 

His voice rang out over the ship, sinister and 
appalling. 

Captain Harper stood as if rooted to the deck. 
The ship had evidently become embayed in some 
of the islets. There should have been no land to 
port. Yet the man could not be mistaken. Claw- 
finger, who seemed to be the dominant spirit of the 
two in charge, acted promptly. 

“ Ready about! ” he roared with a voice of tre- 
mendous power. “ Down with the helm 1 Hard 
down and be damned to you 1 ” he shrieked, and 


172 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


then in rapid succession came the orders for the 
tacking of the ship. 

Now it is no easy matter to tack a ship in such a 
storm. The Betsey shot up into the wind slowly 
and hung there in irons, a ghastly moment, and 
begun to fall off on the starboard tack again. 

Captain Harper, who could follow every move- 
ment of the ship, could stand it no longer. He 
tore open the door and leaped through it, every 
instinct of a sailor aroused. 

“Wear ship for your lives!” he cried as he 
reached the deck. 

“ Brace abox the headyards, and silence that 
fool,” said Wethers. 

Whereupon a sailor struck Captain Harper from 
behind with a belaying pin, and he pitched down 
on the deck senseless. 

Clawfinger, the coolest of the lot, saw that the 
captain’s advice was good. The men, thoroughly 
panic-struck apparently, stood around in a dazed 
condition, while Clawfinger frantically called them 
to shift the helm, to brace aback the headyards, 
in an endeavour to box off the ship, to swing her 
around through a great circle, back her up into 


TREASURE HUNTER 


173 

the wind, and head her away from that awful 
shore. 

Cursing, yelling, and running forward, he 
finally got a few hands on the starboard forebraces, 
but before they could get the yards braced around 
the ship, which had been driving to leeward terrific- 
ally, was lifted up on a huge wave, her head booms 
sunk into a whirling mist of briny seas, and with 
a concussion and shock like an earthquake, she 
pitched terribly upon the rocks. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE END OF THE “ BETSEY ” 

It is hardly possible to describe the scene that en- 
sued when the Betsey struck. The first receding 
wave dragged her off the reef, but the next huge 
roller lifted her high up and hurled her further 
on. The drive of the sea was terrible, the ship 
finally swung round and settled into a fixed position 
in some way, while the huge breakers thundered 
upon her side with tremendous power. 

Bob and Jack were out of their berths on the 
instant. They tumbled out of the cabin, and as 
they did so the foremast went crashing over the 
side. 

The survivors among the crew had huddled 
forward. Some of them had been killed in the 
forecastle when the ship struck the second time; a 
sharp, jagged needle of rock had torn the bows 
out of her and had been thrust into the forepeak 
like a gigantic hook, carrying death and destruc- 


174 


BOB DASHAWAY 


175 


tion everywhere. The rest of the men had rushed 
forward when the ship stuck fast and now stood 
in the bows, staring panic-stricken through the 
mist and foam at the ragged, rocky shore tower- 
ing above them. Then another dreadful thing 
happened. The fore and main masts suddenly 
went by the board. 

The carrying away of the foremast, the fall of 
the heavy foretopsail yard, and then the main top- 
mast, which also was dragged forward as it came 
down, overwhelmed the fore part of the ship, 
crushing and killing everybody forward. At the 
same moment an unusually heavy roller rushed 
across the forecastle and swept it clean of every- 
thing movable, living and dead. Not a man 
appeared to be left alive on the ship forward. 

The boys stood in the door of the cabin, staring 
appalled at the ruin which met their view. The 
ship had settled, and but that she hung on the 
rock forward, would have sunk. The awful sea 
made a clean breach over her, rolling and grinding 
the heavy spars, still secured by cordage and rig- 
ging, in frightful masses on the deck and along- 
side. 


176 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


“ Great Heavens I ” cried Bob, as soon as he 
could get his breath. “ We are lost, there’s not 
a soul left living on the ship.” 

“ Two bodies lie yonder,” said Jack, pointing 
to two figures rolling in the lee scuppers. 

“ One of ’em is the captain and the other Claw- 
finger,” shouted Bob. 

“ Aye, we must get them aft.” 

The rise of the poop protected the boys some- 
what. They did not feel the force of the wind or 
of the sea, which was now making a clean breach 
over the Betsey, until they got out from the lee 
of the cabin. Then they were almost swept from 
their feet. 

“ Wait,” said Bob, pulling Jack back into the 
shelter of the quarter-deck again. “ We’ve got 
to get a line fast or we will be swept overboard.” 

Fortunately the mizzenmast still stood. He 
tore off the royal halyards from the fife-rail and 
passed them securely around his waist, giving the 
fall to Jack. 

“ Take a half hitch around a belaying pin and 
pay it out as I want it,” he said. 

“ All right,” said Jack, “ I’ll keep it taut.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


177 


Thus watched and supported by his young ship- 
mate, who he knew would be as faithful as he 
was skilful, Bob slowly made his way forward, 
fighting against the wind and sea until he reached 
the body of the captain. He had with him the 
mizzen topgallant halyard in his hand. He made 
the rope fast around the body of the captain, 
then aided by Jack he pulled with all his might 
on the rope. The two boys at last dragged the 
prostrate, still senseless captain back to the quar- 
ter-deck. 

Clawfinger lay in the waist. The boys did not 
know whether he was dead or not, but this time 
Jack went for him while Bob tended the halyards, 
and they succeeded in getting him also into the 
cabin. Both men were unconscious. The two 
boys stared at them. 

“Great Christmas! What’ll we do?” cried 
Barrett. 

“ We’ve forgotten the mates ! ” suddenly an- 
swered Dashaway. “ I’ll take the line again ; help 
me to the main hatchway.” 

In a few moments Bob was at the hatchway that 
gave entrance to the hold. The noise of the waves 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


178 

beating alongside was like continuous peals of 
thunder, but as he lifted the cover of the hatch- 
way, which was secured by a hasp and staple and 
fortunately was not locked, he could hear shouts 
arising from below. As soon as the cover was 
off, Mr. Rayton thrust his head up immediately 
and gasped out: 

“ What has happened? ” 

“We’ve run ashore, sir; the masts are carried 
away, the crew has been washed overboard ex- 
cept Clawfinger.” 

“ Where is Captain Harper? ” 

“ Senseless or dead in the cabin.” 

“Who’s left alive?” 

“ Barrett and I, sir, and you and Mr. Harmon.” 

While this brief interchange of speech had been 
going on the mate, followed by Mr. Harmon, 
both being still in double irons, dragged himself 
to the berth deck. The three stood there a minute, 
the mate listening. 

“ She won’t stand this battering long,” he said, 
“ I must get on deck and see what’s to be 
done.” 

“ You couldn’t keep your feet a minute, sir,” 



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TREASURE HUNTER 


179 

said Bob, “ in this wind and sea with those irons 
on.” 

I must try it,” said the mate. 

“ Well, sir,” said the boy, “ let me go first and 
I will bring you a couple of lines from the mizzen 
fife-rail, the mizzenmast still stands, and by 
means of them we can haul you aft one at a 
time.” 

“ Heave ahead,” said the mate, “ that is well 
thought of.” 

It was hard work, but finally it was accom- 
plished, and Mr. Rayton and Mr. Harmon were 
both safely landed in the cabin at last. 

“ I’d give a year of my life,” said Mr. Rayton 
as he sunk down on a transom, “to get these 
infernal irons off. There’s no file aft, of 
course? ” 

“ No, sir,” said Jack, “ and the carpenter’s chest 
is in his cabin abaft the forepeak, and it has prob- 
ably been smashed to splinters.” 

“ The captain said he had found a key that 
he thought would serve,” said Bob. “ He was 
going to give it to us to take to you, and ” 

Mr. Rayton clanked over to the side of the 


i8o BOB DASHAWAY, 

captain. The boys had laid him on the floor with 
a cushion for a pillow. He bent down and looked 
at him. He put his hand over his heart. 

“ It is beating,” he said. “ Here, get a towel 
from his stateroom and see if there is any whiskey 
in his locker; smash it open if necessary, you’ve 
got a belaying pin there.” 

Bob darted away, and presently returned with 
a towel and with a bottle. The ironed mate awk- 
wardly wiped away the blood from the captain’s 
face, opened the bottle, smelled it, tasted it, and 
lifting the captain’s head, poured some of the spirit 
down his throat. The treatment was efficacious, 
for presently the captain opened his eyes. He 
stared about him bewildered a moment, and then 
asked feebly what had happened. 

“ The ship has struck, sir,” answered Mr. Ray- 
ton. “ She is fast going to pieces. Everybody 
except those of us who are here appears to have 
been crushed to death or washed overboard and 
drowned.” 

“ Aye,” said the captain, “ I remember I heard 
her strike and rushed out, and then something hit 
me on the back of the head.” 


TREASURE HUNTER i8i 

“ Captain Harper,” said Mr. Rayton earnestly, 
“ if Mr. Harmon and I could get these irons off 
we could do something. One of the boys here 
said you had found a duplicate key; where is 
it?” 

“ In the little drawer of my desk in my 
cabin. I’m not sure, but I think it will unlock 
them.” 

Barrett ran for it instantly. Luckily the key 
fitted, and in a few moments both the mate and 
the second mate were free. 

“ Now,” said the mate, stretching himself 
luxuriously after his long confinement, “ first we 
must see what is to be done.” 

“ Clawfinger, yonder,” said Bob, indicating the 
other prostrate man. 

“ Give him some whiskey,” growled the mate, 
“ infernal villain though he is, and leave him to 
himself. We’ve got other and more important 
things to look to now.” 

This was soon done. Clawfinger seemed to 
have been more severely hurt than the captain, for 
he did not recover his consciousness. Making him 
as comfortable as they could the four stepped out 


i 82 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


on deck, Captain Harper bidding them do what 
they could and not to mind him. He was lying 
easily on the deck, and said he expected to be all 
right in a short time. 

These things had taken some time, and the 
squall which had arisen so suddenly and had 
wrought such disaster for them was sensibly 
decreasing by the time they had left the cabin. 
The sea still ran high, but it was not so violent 
as it had been, and while the deck was constantly 
awash the sweep of the water was not so over- 
whelming and terrific. Therefore, to get about 
was more practicable than it had been. 

“ Mr. Harmon, you and Barrett go below,” 
said Mr. Rayton, “ and see what the condition 
of affairs is there. Dashaway and I will go 
for’ard.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” said the second mate, as fol- 
lowed by the boy he dropped down the main hatch 
while Mr. Rayton and Dashaway made their way 
slowly forward. 

The mizzenmast still stood practically intact, 
although how or why it stood no one could fathom. 
The fore and main topmasts were gone, the fore- 


TREASURE HUNTER 183 

mast as well. Forward was a scene of desolation 
indescribable. The bows of the ship had been 
battered in. The forecastle, sunk low on the rock, 
was filled with water; several bodies were washing 
about in it. The foreyard had crashed down on 
the forecastle, and still lay there. Two bodies, 
one of them that of Wethers, the ringleader in the 
mutiny, and the other the sailor Fills, were lying 
horribly crushed, pinned to the deck by the weight 
of the yard which had jammed in some way and 
had not been washed overboard. 

The mate and the boy surveyed the scene in 
silence. 

“ She is ruined beyond repair,” said the mate. 

Do you see that jagged point of rock? ” 

“ Yes, sir,” answered Bob, shuddering with the 
horror of it all. 

“ She must have been lifted high by the wave 
and driven down upon it. It cut into the fore- 
peak like a shark’s tooth, and that’s what holds 
us on the reef. When the pounding of the waves 
takes the bows out of her, she will slide off and 
sink.” 


I see, sir,” answered the boy. 


184 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ But from the look of things, if this sea goes 
down, she may hang on for some time. Mean- 
while, it is evident there is nothing living forward.” 
Mr. Rayton turned and surveyed the deck. 
“Lord!” he exclaimed, “the sea has made a 
clean sweep of her! Booms, boats, galley, spars, 
bodies, everything gone. Do you know the state 
of the tide, boy?” 

“ No, sir.” 

“ If we ran on at high tide, when it ebbs the 
stern will sink and maybe the weight of the ship 
will drag us away. If we struck on the ebb, the 
rise and fall won’t make much difference. In 
fact, the ship is hung on a hook.” 

“ Have you any idea where we are, sir? ” asked 
Bob. 

“ Somewhere to the east’ard and north’ard of 
Cape Horn, that’s about all. Maybe near the 
Straits of Le Maire. When the wind goes down, 
if it ever does, and the mist clears away we can 
get a shot at the sun and find out.” 

“ Do you think we are apt to be picked up, 
sir?” 

“ Not one chance in a million,” answered the 


TREASURE HUNTER 


185 

mate. “ Wherever we are, we are ashore, and 
ships give such shores wide berths as a rule. 
Come, let us go aft, we will get after these bodies 
later.” 

Mr. Harmon and Barrett were climbing over 
the hatch-combing as the other two came abreast 
the afterhatch. 

“ Well, sir,” said Mr. Rayton. 

“ Everything forward is stove up and gone to 
pieces,” was the answer. 

“ How about the water casks? ” 

“ There are some aft which have not been stove 
and are still tight apparently.” 

“ And the ship’s stores? ” 

“ Salt water’s got into most of them, but there 
is food enough for the present,” answered Mr. 
Harmon. 

“ Nothing living between decks, of course? ” 

“ Nothing.” 

“ Very well, then,” said Mr. Rayton. “ Let 
us go aft to the cabin.” 

They found Captain Harper sitting up. He 
had worn a heavy fur cap when he went out, and 
that had saved his skull from being fractured from 


1 86 BOB DASHAWAY, 

the blow that had stricken him down. His face 
had been terribly cut and bruised, and his nose 
had been broken in the rolling about he had re- 
ceived while lying helpless on the deck. He was 
very white, and his head ached frightfully, but 
aside from the pain and the disfigurement there 
was nothing serious the matter. 

“Well, gentlemen?” he exclaimed, his head in 
his hands. 

“ Thank God, you are coming to all right,” 
answered Mr. Rayton. 

“ I shall be able to turn to presently,” said the 
captain. “What did you find?” 

“ Well, sir,” answered Mr. Rayton, “ the ship 
is stuck on a ledge of rocks. I felt two shocks, 
and on the second one she appears to have been 
lifted up by a roller and slammed down on a huge, 
jagged point of rock, which crashed in through 
the bows and which rises nearly to the floor of 
the forecastle. She is hanging there like a fish 
on a hook. As long as she holds forward, she’ll 
hang. It was a sharp squall evidently that drove 
us on. The wind is going down visibly, the sea 
is still running high but not like it was. It is 


TREASURE HUNTER 187 

possible to move around the decks, although they 
are all awash. There are several bodies washing 
around in the forepeak, and there are two, of 
whom one is Wethers, pinned down to the deck 
by the foreyard which fell on them. The bow- 
sprit, of course, is gone; there is a stump of the 
foremast left about six feet high, the main topmast 
is gone, and the main yard is down, with the other 
spars washing alongside, the mizzenmast still 
stands. There is not a boat left, and the decks 
have been swept clean of everything, including 
galley and deck house, sir.” 

‘‘ Barrett and I have been below, sir,” said 
Mr. Harmon. “ There are a few water casks 
not yet stove up; provisions are generally spoiled 
by salt water, but there is enough to make out 
on for a while.” 

“ What is the first thing to be done, Mr. Ray- 
ton?” said the captain, still not quite clear in his 
mind. 

“ Clear away the wreckage, sir.” 

He stepped to the bulkhead and took down an 
axe, which was securely fastened there. Mr. 
Harmon at a nod followed his example. 


i88 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ You boys stay aft here with the captain,” said 
Mr. Rayton, passing out of the door, followed 
by Mr. Harmon. 

“ Look to the sailor, yonder,” said Captain 
Harper, regarding Clawfinger earnestly. “ He is 
a desperate, mutinous villain, but we can’t let him 
die. How is he?” he continued as Jack Barrett 
bent over him. 

“ He is still living, sir; that is, he is breathing 
hard.” 

“ Dashaway,” said the captain, “ help me to my 
feet.” 

Assisted by the boy. Captain Harper finally 
arose. He was frightfully giddy and dizzy and 
violently sick, but he managed to control himself. 
He stepped over and sat down on a transom by 
the body of the sailor. 

“ If I felt better,” he said weakly, ‘‘ I might 
do something. As it is, do you give him some 
more of the whiskey. We will make him as com- 
fortable as we can under the circumstances, and 
then I will try to get out on deck.” 

The two boys obeyed the captain’s commands. 
Bob wetted a towel and wiped Clawfinger’s pale 


TREASURE HUNTER 189 

face, they gave him some of the spirit, and then 
Captain Harper, having taken a dram himself, the 
boys helped him out of the cabin. He stood lean- 
ing in the angle made by the break of the poop 
and the lee-rail and surveyed the remains of his 
once handsome ship. 

“ Boys,” he said at last, “ as you know, every- 
thing in the world I own is ruined.” He bit his 
lip for a moment, lifted his eyes to the grey skies 
as if in prayer, and then went on more composedly. 
“ But our lives have been mercifully spared, and 
I have no doubt these wretched and mutinous 
sailors who have wrecked my ship would have 
done for us all in the end; therefore, we should 
be thankful to God for our escape. When a man 
has life and health and a brave heart, nothing can 
go very wrong in the end.” 

Forward, the mate and Mr. Harmon had been 
plying their axes vigorously. The cordage which 
held much of the wreck alongside had been cut 
and the most of it had washed or drifted away. 
Smaller pieces had been shoved aboard. In some 
way they had succeeded in raising the foreyard 
a little and dragging from beneath it the bodies 


190 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


of Wethers and Fills. These, too, they had cast 
overboard. The ship was a desolate picture, of 
course, but nothing like what she had been 
before. 

Presently having done all they could forward, 
the two officers came aft. The wind was cold and 
raw, and it was very misty, enough to drench those 
unprotected to the skin, but the two men had la- 
boured so that they were in a warm glow, their 
faces covered with sweat. 

“ There ! ” said the mate, “ that’s done. I am 
glad to see you on your feet, sir, and able to take 
command. Have you any orders? ” 

“ Yes,” said the captain, “ we must all get some- 
thing to eat, and then we’ll talk over our course. 
The wind is abating, I think.” 

“ Decidedly so,” answered Mr. Rayton, “ and 
hark to the sea, it is not nearly so heavy as it 
was.” 

“ It is heavy enough in all conscience,” answered 
the captain, listening to the waves beating along 
the weather side. 

“ Aye, sir,” said Mr. Harmon, “ but the thun- 
der of it is much less alongside than it was. If it 


TREASURE HUNTER 


191 

grows no worse, I think the ship will hold until 
the next storm.” 

“ And if the wind goes down,” added the mate, 
“ and the weather clears as it promises, we can 
get a sight of the sun and tell where we are, and 
then ” 

“ All in good time, gentlemen,” said the cap- 
tain, “ but at present, we can do nothing. It is a 
long time since we have eaten. Mr. Harmon, will 
you and the boys see if you can’t rout out some- 
thing for us to eat and drink? Mr. Rayton, you 
and I will go into the cabin to counsel together.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE COMMODORE IN A PLEASANT MOOD 

“ In all my voyaging,” said Commodore Hark- 
ness, impatiently pacing the weather side of the 
quarter-deck of the Young American^ to Mr. True- 
fitt, the young officer who was the mate of the 
ship, who happened to have the watch, “ I have 
never met with so many vexatious and yet unavoid- 
able delays. For instance, the loss of the mizzen 
topmast in that hard gale in the run to Rio, which 
brought us there the very day after the Betsey 
sailed, then that cursed clumsy collier that ran 
into us while we were at anchor and stove in the 
port bow almost to the water line and laid us up 
at Buenos Aires for ten days, just when I could 
have almost given the ship to get on. I’ve got 
the fastest keel in these waters, yet when we put 
into Port Stanley day before yesterday, we found 
the Betsey had been gone three days! Now I 
suppose there is nothing to do but to run down 

192 


BOB DASHAWAY 


193 

to the South Shetlands, and try to pick her up 
there.” 

I guess not, sir,” answered Mr. Truefitt. 
“ We certainly have had bad luck.” 

“ Of course IVe got to get those boys if I have 
to follow the Betsey to the South Pole. It is most 
vexatious and annoying to have to lose all this 
good weather while we hunt about in the Antarctic 
seas for two harum-scarum youngsters.” 

“ But they couldn’t help it, sir,” suggested Mr. 
Truefitt deferentially, as became a mate’s address 
to his captain. 

“No! no! I know that. I don’t blame the 
boys,” was the answer. 

The old commodore did not enjoy having his 
cruise disturbed and his time wasted even if nobody 
that he could lay his hands on was at fault. But 
pleased or displeased, he had to get his youngsters 
back, there was no disputing that. 

“ We are fortunate in this fine weather though,” 
he resumed after a little pause. “ I have never 
experienced anything quite so good in these waters, 
I believe.” 

“ Well, sir, from the look of the sea and from 


194 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


the feel in the air, there’s been a wet storm here- 
abouts, I should say, although it is pleasant enough 
now.” 

“ I agree with you,” said the commodore, swing- 
ing about and looking over the side of the ship, 
where the rough blue water sparkled brightly be- 
neath the morning sun. 

As he did so his eye roamed along the distant 
shore. The breeze was blowing fresh and strong 
from the southward. The ship was on the port 
tack, making a short leg toward the land. The 
commodore gazed at it steadily. He had no love 
for lee shores even in fair weather and under 
bright skies. He was too far off to see anything 
more than the faint loom of cliffs and hills or 
distant mountains from the deck. 

“ I think I should not stand on this tack much 
longer, Mr. Truefitt,” he said at last. “ I don’t 
like to get too near that rocky coast yonder. You 
have a hand aloft, I suppose.” 

“ Certainly, sir. Jack Buntlin. He’s an old 
man-o’-war’s man, and I guess he has about the best 
pair of eyes on the ship; besides, I gave him my 
glass.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


195 


“ Where is he? ” 

“ On the foreroyal yard, sir.” 

The Young A^nerican was under all plain sail 
at the time. 

“ By your leave, Mr. Truefitt,” said the commo- 
dore, who was very particular as to the etiquette 
of the quarter-deck, “ I will hail him.” 

“ Certainly, sir.” 

The commodore hollowed his hand and spoke 
through it, his voice pealing trumpet-like through 
the ship. 

“ Foreroyal yard, there ! ” he roared. 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

“ Keep a sharp lookout ahead, we’re drawing 
something close to that land.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

“ And may I ask. Commodore,” said Mr. True- 
fitt, “ after we have picked up the Betsey, if we 
are fortunate enough to overhaul her, what our 
course will be? ” 

“ Well,” said the commodore, “ I think I have 
about given up my original plan of running around 
the Cape of Good Hope. I think I will round 
the Horn and then up along the South American 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


196 

coast, touching at Hawaii and doing a little trad- 
ing wherever we can pick up a little freight, and 
then making a straight run for Macao and thence 
to India and back home by the Cape of Good 
Hope.” 

“ That’ll be just reversing your original 
plan.” 

“ Exactly,” said the commodore. “ You see 
we are so far to the eastward now it would hardly 
pay to double back across the Atlantic to Cape 
Town, and by the time we get to the Shetlands, 
we shall have made so much southing that the other 
way will be the easier course.” 

“ It will make it easier for us to round the Horn, 
sir,” assented Mr. Truefitt, “ being so far south 
of it.” 

“ Well,” said the commodore, “ I have rounded 
it several times in my life, and it is generally hard 
enough in any latitude.” 

“ I have been around once,” said the mate. 
“We made it in twelve days from fifty degrees 
south latitude in the Atlantic to fifty degrees south 
latitude in the Pacific.” 

“ That was a fine run,” said the commodore. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


197 

“ but I have beaten it; I have made it in nine and 
a half.” 

“ I believe the Young American could do it in 
eight or eight and a half,” said Mr. Truefitt ad- 
miringly. “ She is the fastest ship I have ever 
sailed on, sir,” 

“ Aye, and the fastest I have ever sailed on, 
and IVe sailed on many, man and boy, in some 
fifty years of cruising.” 

“ You know, sir, our Yankee ship-wrights have 
just begun to build ships; before another generation 
passes over our heads, I predict that we shall have 
revolutionised naval architecture.” 

“ Aye,” answered the older man, “ weVe got 
the fastest ships on the ocean now and we are turn- 
ing out better and swifter ones every year. There 
was nothing afloat when she was launched that 
could overhaul the Young American^ given the 
proper kind of wind and weather, but I have no 
doubt there are quite a number of ships could show 
us their heels now on the wind or going free.” 

“ Well, maybe, sir,” answered Mr. Truefitt 
doubtfully, “ but Eve never come across them.” 

“ If I had my boys safe aboard again,” said the 


198 BOB DASHAWAY, 

commodore at last, “ I should be perfectly happy.” 

“ I should think so,” answered Mr. Truefitt. 
“ You have a smart, well-found ship, a ready and 
willing crew of prime seamen with a veteran and 
experienced commander like yourself ” 

“And don’t forget,” interposed Commodore 
Harkness pleasantly, “ as fine a group of young 
officers as I ever sailed with, and I have sailed 
much and with fine men.” 

“ Thank you, sir,” answered the mate. 

Commodore Harkness was ordinarily a reserved 
man, but the fine, splendid air of the fresh, brisk 
morning, the fact that they would probably run 
down the Betsey within the next few days and get 
the boys back, that his anxieties would be over for 
the cruise, put him in a cheerful, complacent, and 
talkative mood. 

Mr. Truefitt was a favourite officer of the 
Harkness & Dashaway line. His rise had been 
rapid, and as he was the son of an old friend. 
Commodore Harkness had chosen him especially 
for his first officer on this cruise, which really com- 
bined pleasure with business. The commodore 
was rich enough and willing enough to have under- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


199 


taken the voyage merely to gratify his own desires, 
even if there had been absolutely no money what- 
ever in it, so the two gentlemen passed the next 
half-hour or so in pleasant conversation. 

The Young American had been approaching the 
land at a great pace. At last its rough and jagged 
outline rising above the horizon could now be dis- 
tinguished from the deck. It looked stern and for- 
bidding indeed. After a pause in the conversation, 
the commodore stared shoreward long and hard. 

“ We are in about fifty-four degrees south lati- 
tude, I should say, Mr. Truefitt,” he said at last. 
“ The land trends sharply to the eastward here 
and but little is known of it. I think the Straits 
of Le Maire open to the east of us. I don’t want 
to run them. That point yonder ought to be Cape 
San Diego. She must get enough easting to 
weather Cape San Juan on Los Estados Island, the 
easternmost point of the Continent. We’d better 
go about, sir.” 

“ Very good, sir,” said Mr. Truefitt. He lifted 
the trumpet dangling from his wrist, placed it to 
his lips, and roared out: 

“ Ready about! Stations for stays! ” 


200 BOB DASHA WAY 

The men, who had been idling upon the deck 
in the pleasant morning, instantly awoke to life 
and action, but before Mr. Truefitt could order 
the helm a-lee, the deep voice of Buntlin came roar- 
ing down to the deck from the foreroyal yard : 

“ Sail ho ! ” he cried. 


CHAPTER XIV 


RESCUED 

“ Keep fast the tacks and sheets, Mr. Truefitt,” 
said the commodore instantly, “ and steady with 
the helm.” 

“ Keep all fast,” roared Mr. Truefitt through 
the trumpet. 

“ Now, sir,” said the commodore softly, “ find 
out what has sighted for’ard.” 

Mr. Truefitt walked rapidly along the weather 
gangway until he cleared the main tack. He threw 
back his head and hailed the foreroyal yard. 

“ Aloft there, what do you see? ” 

“A sail, sir; leastwise it is the mast of a ship.” 

“Where away?” 

“ Broad off the lee bow% sir.” 

“ Can you see it with the naked eye? ” 

“ No, sir, but with a glass it is quite plain.” 

“ What do you make of it? ” 

“ It looks like it rises from a rock, sir. It 
shows a flag Union down.” 


201 


202 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“What flag?” 

“ The United States, sir.” 

“ Can you make out anything else? ” 

“ No, sir. It may be set up on shore, but it is 
a ship’s mast.” 

“ Can you see a hull?” 

“ No, sir. There is a smother of foam on the 
rocks at the foot of it.” 

“ Jump aloft yourself, Mr. Truefitt,” said the 
commodore, who had followed the officer forward 
in his impatience, “ and see what you make of it. 
I will take charge of the ship.” 

“ Very good, sir,” answered the mate, handing 
the trumpet to the commodore and springing up 
into the fore rigging. 

There wasn’t a sailor on the ship who was more 
active and alert than Mr. Truefitt. Scrambling 
over the futtocks, in a few minutes he reached the 
crosstrees, and presently took Buntlin’s place on 
the royal yard. Through the glass he ogled the 
spot indicated by the sailor long and earnestly. 

“Well, sir! Well, sir!” roared the commo- 
dore at last. 

“ It is a ship’s mast, sir; a mizzenmast. I think 


TREASURE HUNTER 


203 


it rises from a ship’s deck, although I can’t be sure 
of that from the smother of foam. They are in 
trouble whoever they are, for the ensign is Union 
down.” 

“ Very good,” said Commodore Harkness; “ lay 
down on deck, sir.” 

Mr. Truefitt disdained the shrouds, and came 
sliding down in a few seconds by one of the back- 
stays. 

“ Well, sir,” said the commodore, after hearing 
the report, ‘‘ it is some ship that has been driven 
ashore, some American ship.” 

“ Looks as if she’s wedged on the rocks. She 
should be about our own size, and ” 

“ By Heavens I ” exclaimed the commodore. 
“ Suppose she should prove to be the Betsey! ” 

“ That’s the only American ship that we know 
of around here, sir, although, of course, she may 
be some homeward bound whaler coming the other 
way, and ” 

“ Whatever she is,” said the commodore, “ her 
people are in distress and we’ll have a nearer look. 
Call all hands, sir.” 

“ Dethridge ! ” shouted Mr. Truefitt. 


204 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


“ All hands on deck,” roared the old man, shrilly 
piping the call. 

“ I want the best men on the ship on lookout, 
I will take charge myself, sir,” said the commo- 
dore, turning aft. “ You go to the fo’c’s’l and 
keep a bright lookout for breakers. We’ll run 
in as close as we dare and then heave to. Better 
get the men at their stations for tacking in case 
we have to bear up, sir.” 

The old commodore ran aft with surprising 
agility, acknowledging the salutes of the mates as 
they hastened to their stations. The ship was a 
scene of animated bustle for a few minutes until 
the watch below got on deck and ranged itself 
handy for the various sheets, tacks, and braces. 

“ Forecastle, there ! ” roared the commodore 
when silence had supervened. 

And it was silence. The old man did not allow 
the usual jabbering that went on in ordinary mer- 
chant vessels, his discipline was strictly of the man- 
o’-war type. 

“ Aye, sir,” came back the answer. 

“ Have you got a hand on the foreroyal yard 
still?” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


205 


“ Buntlin is there yet, sir.” 

“ Tell him to keep a bright lookout for breakers, 
the safety of the ship depends upon him.” 

“ Very good, sir.” 

The commodore ascended to the weather side of 
the poop deck, leaned far out, and peered anxiously 
ahead. The ship ran on for perhaps three-quar- 
ters of an hour longer, when the quiet, in spite 
of the suppressed excitement on board, was broken 
again by a hail from the foreroyal. 

“ I can make her out now, sir,” was the cry. 

“ What is it? ” asked the commodore. 

“ It is a hull of a ship. There are figures on 
the deck. They are dipping the flag. They see 
us, sir.” 

A sudden cheer burst from the lips of the 
crew. 

“ Very good,” said the commodore. “ Keep 
your weather eye lifting.” 

A quarter of an hour longer and Buntlin hailed 
again. 

“ There’s a line of reefs between us and the ship, 
sir; they’re not more than a mile away. I can see 
the breakers plain.” 


206 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Very good,” said the commodore. 

He seized the glass and surveyed the shore line. 
He could see the breakers himself now; they were 
about as near as they dared to go, he decided. 

“ Ready about ! Station for stays ! ” he roared. 
‘‘ Down with the helm ! Rise tacks and sheets ! ” 
The commodore put the Young American on 
the other tack before he hove her to so that her 
drift would be away from, rather than toward 
the shore. When the ship’s mainyards were 
backed, he called Mr. Truefitt aft, turned the 
deck over to the second mate, and bade his first 
officer take the cutter, the heaviest of any of the 
ship’s boats, except the launch amidships, and 
board the wreck, which was now in plain sight, 
scarcely more than a mile away. 

“ There are natives on these islands hereabouts, 
I have heard, who are very savage,” added the 
commodore. “ Your men had better be armed.” 

“ Very good, sir,” answered Mr. Truefitt. 
“ Dethridgel” 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

“ Call away the first cutter.” 

The commodore liked to keep up the naval 


TREASURE HUNTER 


207 

boat names with which he was familiar, even in 
this merchant ship. 

“ Lay aft all you first cutters to go ashore,” 
roared the boatswain. 

“ May I go with them, sir?” asked Dethridge, 
as the men came tumbling aft. 

“ If Mr. Truefitt has no objection.” 

“ Td be glad to have you along,” said the mate, 
stepping in the stern sheets of the boat, where the 
boatswain followed him. 

They had passed several anxious days on the 
Betsey. There was absolutely nothing they could 
do. The shore was bleak, bare, and desolate; no 
evidence of life appeared. That morning the sun 
shone brilliantly, and the wind fell to a whole sail 
breeze. 

The captain and the mates had about decided 
that their only course would be to take the wreck 
of the dinghy, which still hung from the davits 
astern, repair it, build up its gunwales, try to make 
it unsinkable by means of empty water casks, and 
should the weather moderate sufficiently, try to 
row it or sail it back to the Falklands. 


208 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


The captain had mainly recovered from his 
wounds, and the others were feeling fit for any- 
thing. There was sufficient supply of provisions 
and water for some time, and they had not stinted 
themselves. 

Clawfinger had at last recovered consciousness, 
but two of his ribs were broken, which rendered 
him of little service. He was very contrite and 
very humble, and as he was so weak, sick, and help- 
less, he had been allowed to occupy a cabin, where 
the others gave him such attention as was neces- 
sary. 

The captain and Mr. Rayton had discussed the 
probability of being seen by a passing ship, and 
they had decided that the chances were very small 
indeed. 

The mate and Mr. Harmon were tinkering 
around the dinghy, getting her ready for the voyage 
when the sea should go down. The captain was 
preparing to take an observation to try to find out 
where they were. The boys were breaking out 
provisions with which to stock the dinghy for their 
voyage. 

“ Captain Harper,” said Dashaway, setting 


TREASURE HUNTER 


209 


down a box of hard bread and wiping the sweat 
from his forehead, “ may I go aloft, sir, and take 
a look at the offing? ” 

“ Certainly,” said the captain. “ Here,” he 
handed him his own glass, ‘‘ you can see further 
with that than with your naked eyes, bright how- 
ever they may be.” 

“ May I go with him, sir? ” asked Jack. 

“ Go ahead,” said the captain, laughing. 

The boys had worked like young heroes, and the 
scramble up to the mizzen topmast crosstrees 
would lend a little variety to their life and would 
do no harm and it might do some good. 

Slinging the glass over his back by its lanyard. 
Bob, followed by his messmate and shipmate, 
sprang into the starboard mizzen shrouds which 
were fortunately intact. The two boys scrambled 
over the futtocks and into the mizzen-top. They 
rested there for a few moments, and more from 
habit than anything else. Bob unslung the glass, 
put it to his eyes, and swept the horizon to sea- 
ward. At one point he stopped, his jaw dropped, 
and his mouth opened. 

“ What is it. Bob? ” asked Jack. 


210 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ By Jiminy,” said Bob, “ I think it is a ship ! 
.There, you take it ! ” 

He handed Jack the glass. With nervous haste 
the boy focussed it and took a long look. 

“ Great Christmas I It’s a ship’s royals, if I 
ever saw any,” he said, handing back the glass. 
“ Shall we hail the deck? ” 

“ Let’s go higher and make sure,” said Bob. 

Together they raced up to the crosstrees. Twin- 
ing his arms around the mast to steady himself. 
Bob looked through the glass again. 

“ It’s a ship,” he said. 

He handed the glass to Jack, who was close at 
his side. 

“ Aye, a large ship on the port tack and coming 
fast,” answered Jack. 

Bob stared up to the masthead where the flag. 
Union down, rippled out in the strong breeze. As 
they could see so they must certainly be seen, he 
decided. 

“ Deck there ! ” he shouted. 

“ What is it? ” asked the captain. 

“ Ship in sight, sir,” answered Bob, “ on the 
port tack and coming down fast.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


21 I 


“ Hooray ! ” yelled Mr. Rayton, dropping his 
axe and springing into the rigging. 

“ You can see her from the top, sir,’’ said Dash- 
away, sliding down a back-stay and handing the 
glass to the mate. 

“ Boy’s right, sir,” yelled Mr. Rayton in great 
excitement. 

“Has she seen us, think you?” asked Captain 
Harper. 

“ If we can see her, she can see us, you may 
be sure,” was the reply. 

“ Let us have the glass again. Bob, if Mr. Ray- 
ton is through with it,” cried Jack from the cross- 
trees above. 

When he got it he took another long survey. 
The incoming ship was approaching at a great 
rate, much more of her upper works were visible 
now than before. 

“ Well, what do you make of her?” cried Cap- 
tain Harper at last. 

“ I am not sure, sir,” answered the boy triumph- 
antly, “ but I think she is the Young American! 


CHAPTER XV 


THE STORY OF THE TREASURE 

To say that Commodore Harkness was happy 
when he got his boys back is putting it mildly. 

Mr. Truefitt had managed to find a passage 
through the rocks with his cutter; he had easily 
boarded the unfortunate Betsey and taken from her 
the surviving members of her crew, including the 
youngsters. 

Captain Harper and the mates saved their per- 
sonal effects and the ship’s papers. Before he left 
the vessel he hauled down the American flag and 
brought that with him. It was a matter of some 
little difficulty to get the helpless and suffering 
Clawfinger into the cutter, but they finally man- 
aged it. It was a glad party that at last stood 
on the decks of the Young American. 

Bidding the officer of the watch to fill away. 
Commodore Harkness took the three officers of 
the Betsey anjd the two boys down to his cabin. 


212 


BOB DASHAWAY 


213 


whither Mr. Truefitt also came. It was a long 
story that the youngsters had to tell, but they had 
plenty of time at their disposal and a group of 
eager listeners. 

Captain Harper took up the tale from the time 
the boys were put on shipboard, and with many 
respectful corrections and suggestions from the 
others, the exciting account of the adventures 
through which they had passed was related. When 
it was all finished and the story was complete. 
Commodore Harkness asked a single pertinent 
question. 

“ Where,” said he, “ is the map of the treasure 
island? ” 

“ Here,” answered Captain Harper, pulling the 
little oilskin packet from his pocket. 

He opened it, took from it the precious parch- 
ment, and handed it to his host. 

Commodore Harkness scrutinised it long and 
earnestly. 

“ As you say,” he remarked, “ it has been split, 
there are traces of writing on the back, and the 
corner containing the latitude and longitude is 
gone. You say you got this from the sailor you 


214 bob DASHAWAY, 

tried to rescue?” he continued, turning to 
Bob. 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Well,” said the commodore quietly, “ it hap- 
pens, curiously enough, that that same sailor is 
on board this very ship.” 

“What! ” exclaimed Captain Harper. 

“ On board this ship, sir? ” asked Mr. Rayton. 

“ Why,” said Bob, “ we left him dreadfully cut 
up.” 

“ He is all right now,” said the commodore, 
smiling, “ and we’ll have him aft. Mr. Barrett, 
step outside and present my compliments to the 
officer of the watch and ask him to pass the word 
for Buntlin to report in the cabin.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” said Jack, scampering away. 

Presently Jack Buntlin entered the cabin, 
knuckled his forehead, and waited in some anxiety 
for whatever might be about to happen. 

“ Buntlin,” said the commodore, tossing the 
map down toward the foot of the table where the 
man stood, “ did you ever see that? ” 

“ Did I ever see ” began the sailor diffi- 

dently, bending forward, and then as his eye took 


TREASURE HUNTER 215 

in the document, he fairly roared through the 
cabin, It’s the map of the treasure island I ” 

“ Aye,” said the commodore, “ it’s a map sure 
enough, but part of it is gone.” 

Buntlin tore open his shirt frantically, fairly 
ripping the buttons off. He drew out from a 
pouch suspended around his neck a little oiled silk 
bag tied up like that in which Mr. Harper had 
kept the map. With nervous fingers he broke the 
lashings; the next instant he threw on the table 
a little triangular piece of parchment. 

“ That’s the missing part,” he cried, forgetting 
his manners and everything else in his excitement. 
“ That Clawfinger devil you brought on board in 
the cutter wormed out of me that I had the map. 
I knew that he would try to steal it somehow so 
I tore off this corner an’ kept it separate from the 
other.” 

“ Will you hand me that little piece of parch- 
ment, Mr. Rayton,” said the commodore, “ and 
the map ? ” 

Mr. Rayton picked them both up and passed 
them to the head of the table where the old com- 


2i6 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


modore was, and as he did so he fitted the torn 
piece to the other. 

“ It is a perfect fit, sir,” he said, laying both 
pieces down on the table. 

“ Aye,” remarked the commodore, “ so it is. 
We have got the latitude and longitude of the 
island now, gentlemen.” 

“ That ain’t all, sir,” continued Buntlin, “ there’s 
this that goes with it.” From the same bag he 
extracted another sheet of parchment exactly the 
same size and shape as the first. This was a 
thinner piece and it was covered with quaint, old- 
fashioned writing. 

“ What is this? ” asked the commodore. 

“ This is the back of that map. You see, sir, 
when I tore off the corner, I discovered that the 
parchment was two pieces pasted together in some 
way an’ hammered until they looked like one. I 
split it myself. Not bein’ very good at readin’, 
howsomever, I ain’t never made it all out rightly, 
the letters bein’ so old-fashioned an’ kinder con- 
fusin’, an’ the writin’ ain’t bright like the map, 
neither.” 

The commodore scrutinised it carefully. It was 


TREASURE HUNTER 


217 


covered with fine old writing in black ink. The 
ink was considerably faded, and at first sight he 
could make little of it. He laid it down opposite 
the map and the torn piece for future reference. 

“ This begins to look interesting, Commodore,” 
said Captain Harper. 

“ Ver)%” answered the commodore. “ We’ll set 
our wits to reading it when we have time; mean- 
while, perhaps you will tell us how you came by 
this. Master Buntlin.” 

“ Willin’ly, sir,” answered the seaman. “ You 
see, sir, I was bo’s’n’s mate on the Essex frigate 
when Commodore Porter took her ’round the 
Horn an’ showed the American flag in the Pacific.” 

“ And a mighty plucky thing it was to do, eh. 
Harper?” said the commodore. 

“ Very,” answered the captain. 

“ I was wounded when the Essex was cut to 
pieces an’ set fire to by the Phcehe an’ the Cheruh, 
w’ich they would never ha’ done if they’d fought 
fair, sir,” protested Buntlin earnestly. “ They 
took us at a disadvantage.” 

“ I know,” said Harkness kindly. ‘‘ Commo- 
dore Porter is a friend of mine. I have heard 


2i8 bob DASHAWAY, 

details of the fight at first hand from him, and I 
would like to hear your story of it some time, but 
not now. Go on.” 

“ Well, sir, I managed to git ashore somehow 
or other, an’ then I must have fell senseless, for 
when I come to, I was in a Spanish house in Val- 
paraiso, an’ they told me I’d been sick for two 
months. I’d picked up some Spanish in Cuby an’ 
the West Injies an’ had a little money left, an’ 
they treated me white, but when I was able to 
git out, the English ships had give Captain Porter 
an’ the survivors of the crew the Essex Junior as 
a cartel, an’ I suppose I was reported as dead; 
anyways they was gone. Well, sir, there I was, 
stranded in a South American port with not a 
chancet on earth to git home. Presently along 
come an English whaler short-handed. I was an 
American, but they was glad enough to ship me. 
I’d done some whalin’ in my time, arter the big 
fish out o’ Salem an’ New Bedford, that’s where 
I met old Bill Dethridge, your bo’s’n, an’ I shipped 
aboard her. I was very glad to git among white 
folks myself, an’ as we was cruising west’ard, I 
knowed I’d never have to fight agin my own flag. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


219 


besides the cap’n promised to transship me if we 
spoke any American ship, which was onlikely as 
there was none in them waters as I knowed.” 

“ I am not disposed to blame you,” said Com- 
modore Harkness, as the seaman paused rather 
nervously. 

“ Thank ye, sir,” said Buntlin, “ specially as I 
wa’n’t any too strong an’ wa’n’t gettin’ no stronger 
there.” 

“ Well, what next? ” 

“ Not much, sir. One day, I reckon it was not 
far from the latitood and longitood marked on 
that there chart, we picked up a kinder curious 
native canoe that had been hollered out of a big 
log. There was a man in it. He was a Spaniard 
an’ he was pretty far gone, starvation an’ thirst 
an’ exposure. We took him aboard, an’ as I was 
the only one of the crew that could speak Spanish, 
the cap’n turned him over to me. He was a sick 
man, a dyin’ man, I may say, sir. I didn’t quite 
git the rights of his story, but as near’s I could 
find out, he’d been the cap’n of a Spanish schooner. 
He’d chartered a boat, or got control of it some- 
how, to go out an’ hunt for treasure. He said 


220 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


that somehow he had come into possession of a 
map of an island on which there was an English 
treasure ship. The map had been in his family 
for years, but he’d only had it a short time, an’ 
he fit out this schooner to go an’ fetch it. As near 
as I could make out, sir, the schooner was wrecked 
on the identical island on the map, an’ he was took 
prisoner by the natives, which was fierce and war- 
like. He managed to steal a canoe one day an’ 
git away from the island, an’ drifted around for 
weeks in the calm water, slowly starvin’ an’ thirstin’ 
till we picked him up, and that’s all the story, sir.” 

“ You mean ” 

I mean he died ravin’ mad the next day.” 

“And the map?” 

“ He give that to me afore he died, said I was 
good to him, an’ he had no kith or kin, an’ mebbe 
I could git it myself.” 

“What was his name?” 

“ Francisco Silva, sir.” 

“ Commodore Harkness, with your permission, 
sir,” said Captain Harper. “ My man, did he say 
that the treasure was there?” 

“ He did, sir.” 



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TREASURE HUNTER 


221 


“ Had he seen it? ” 

“ Yes, sir; the wreck of a ship, — an English ship, 
it is in a cave on that island, right there, I take 

it ” Old Buntlin laid his thumb on the spot 

to which the legend referred. “ He said it was 
chuck full of bars of gold an’ silver with pearls an’ 
jewels an’ sich like, an’ the ship was crammed to the 
hatches with it. The natives made a kind of a 
god of it an’ left it alone. Your honours, I can 
see him now, with his face a-flushin’ an’ his eyes 
a-burnin’ with fever, a-ravin’ about that gold in 
Spanish, an’ me the only man in the fo’c’s’l as 
could understand him. He was that ragged and 
I dirty that the officers took him for a common 

, sailor an’ berthed him for’ard, an’ them Britishers 

wa’n’t none too good to him. He disturbed them 
at night with his moanin’, an’ in short, that’s the 
whole Story, sir. When the war was over, I trans- 
shipped to an American trader at Canton, an’ come 
on home by the way o’ the Cape o’ Good Hope. 
I’d jest landed in New York an’ met up with 
Clawfinger an’ his mates, an’ the rest of it, ye 
know.” 

“ A most remarkable story, indeed,” said the 


222 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


commodore, “ and you believe, do you, that this 
Spanish citizen, Francisco Silva, was telling you 
the truth?” 

“ As there’s a God above me, I do, sir.” 

Now Buntlin was a very sober, reliable sort of 
a man, not given to exaggeration, and his solemn 
declaration made a great impression upon the little 
group in the cabin. 

“ And you say you have never been able to 
decipher the reading? ” 

“ I don’t rightly know what decipher means, 
sir, but there don’t seem to be any ’rithmetic 
on it.” 

“ I mean you have never been able to read it? ” 

“ Not all of it, sir, it bein’ in writin’ which I 
don’t read it very well, but it seems to me, sir, 
that it is about a ship called the Marigold” 

“ I beg your pardon, gentlemen,” said Mr. Har- 
mon, who was a college man, “ but I have studied 
old documents a little, and if you will give it to 
me I will do my best to make it out.” 

“ Very good,” said the commodore. “ Have 
a try at it, Mr. Harmon. That will do, Buntlin.” 

“ Beg yer pardon, sir,” said the sailor, shifting 


TREASURE HUNTER 223 

uneasily, “ but are yer goin’ arter that treasure, 
sir?” 

It was a question in which all present had a 
definite interest. The commodore hesitated. The 
same thought was in everybody’s mind, and the air 
was charged with emotion. Bob and Jack were 
on tenterhooks of excitement. If Bob had dared 
he would have interposed, but he knew that his 
uncle would brook no interference or suggestion 
from him or anybody, unless it might be from 
Captain Harper. 

“What do you think. Captain Harper?” said 
j the commodore. “ I have taken your judgment 
before and I know it to be good.” 

“ Well, sir,” said Captain Harper, “ the man 
I tells a perfectly plain story; he has confidence in 
it himself, and if we can persuade ourselves that 
the treasure is there and this ship were mine, I 
should try for it.” 

“ Humph ! ” said the commodore smilingly. 
“ Well, Captain Harper and gentlemen all, if I 
can persuade myself that the treasure is there, we 
will have a try for it.” 

“ Hooray I ” cried Bob irrepressibly, and the 


224 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


next second Jack joined him. The commodore 
was greatly scandalised. 

“ Silence there ! ” he cried severely. “ What 
do you mean, young gentlemen! I am surprised 
at you.” 

“ Beg your pardon, sir,” said both boys 
promptly, “ but ” 

“That’ll do,” said the commodore, who evi- 
dently was not half as angry as he appeared. 
“ Well, Mr. Harmon,” he began, “ what did you 
make of the document?” 

“ It is written in old English, sir, the kind that 
prevailed two hundred and fifty years ago, I should 
say. I will write out an exact translation of it 
presently, but as near as I can make it out now it 
is from the master of an English bark, MarigoldJ* 

“ Aye, now I remember ; she was one of a, fleet 
commanded by the great Francis Drake, the Eng- 
lish sailor, when he made his great voyage around 
the world,” cried Captain Harper, slapping the 
table. “ I recall it all now. The name was 
familiar to me all the time and I could not quite 
place it. She got separated from the rest and has 
never been heard of since.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


225 


“ You are right, sir,” said Mr. Harmon, “ and 
here is her story. She got separated from Drake’s 
fleet after passing through the Straits of Magellan 
and was driven far to the westward by heavy east- 
erly gales. Working up northward toward Ma- 
nila, she fell in with a treasure ship, a Spanish 
galleon, among the Philippine Islands. I have not 
made out the name of the ship yet, but she was 
captured after a smart fight in which she was badly 
damaged, her treasure was transshipped, and she 
turned adrift with her crew. It seems that the 
captain of the Marigold turned back, endeavouring 
to make his way to England through the Straits 
of Magellan or around the newly discovered Cape 
Horn. His ship got badly shattered in a storm 
and was driven to this island of which he has made 
a map. An earthquake or a tidal wave lifted her 
up, tore her from her anchors, and drove her into 
a cave. His crew was drowned or murdered, and 
this was written or committed to a bottle by the 
master, who was the last survivor. It is signed 
with his name ‘ Nicholas Anthony.’ ” 

“ Looks genuine now. Captain Harper,” said 
the commodore. 


226 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Perfectly, sir.” 

“ Very good,” said the commodore decisively. 
“ Then we’ll round the Horn and run up to this 
island to see what we can find.” 

Bob opened his mouth, unmindful of his former 
rebuff, to let out another yell, but the vigilant com- 
modore got him just in time and transfixed him 
with a heavy frown. 

“ Buntlin,” said Commodore Harkness to the 
sailor, who was still in the cabin. 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ You are willing to trust this document to me, 
I suppose? ” 

“ Of course, your honour.” 

‘‘ You can tell the whole story to the crew if 
you like. You haven’t mentioned it to any one 
aboard, I suppose?” 

“ No one, ’ceptin’ Bill Dethridge, sir, an’ me 
an’ him bein’ sich old shipmates.” 

“ Very good. Well, you can tell the whole crew 
the whole story now. After we have had time to 
examine the maps further, I will let you show them 
to the men. You can say to them from me, that 
if there’s any treasure there and we get it, we will 


TREASURE HUNTER 


227 

divide it among all hands in accordance with the 
prize laws of the United States.” 

“ That’s most handsome of you, sir,” said old 
Jack Buntlin, his eyes glistening. 

“ Not at all,” said the commodore, “ it is only 
fair.” 

“ Thank ye kindly, yer honour,” said Bunt- 
lin, making a sea scrape and leaving the 
cabin. 

As he did so. Commodore Harkness’ eyes fell 
upon Captain Harper, whose face looked rather 
blank. The commodore perceived what was in 
the gentleman’s mind. 

“ Captain Harper,” he said, “ and gentlemen,” 
turning to the other two officers, “ you surely do 
not think for a moment that you will not share in 
this treasure, if treasure there be?” 

“ We have no claim upon it, of course,” said 
Captain Harper. 

“ I am not so sure about that,” said the commo- 
dore, “ but whether you have a claim or not, you 
are going to have a share just like the rest. Your 
share. Captain Harper, will be exactly the same as 
mine, and, Mr. Rayton, yours will be the same as 


228 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


my mate’s, Mr. Truefitt; Mr. Harmon, you will 
share with my second mate.” 

“ Thank you, sir,” said Captain Harper. “ It 
is most kind of you and we all appreciate it.” 

“ We have fought together in other days,” said 
the commodore kindly, “ and I could not think of 
treating an old shipmate unfairly.” 

“ It’s more than fair; it’s generous, sir,” said 
Mr. Rayton, “ and as we are here on your ship, 
if you think us worthy, we’d be glad to turn to 
and share the watches with your officers, or in any 
way we can help out, eh, Harmon? ” 

“ Certainly, sir.” 

“ Speaking with Commodore Harkness’ permis- 
sion,” said Mr. Truefitt promptly, “ we’d be glad 
to have you associated with us, gentlemen.” 

“ That’s all settled then,” said the bluff old 
commodore heartily. “ If the story is a true one, 
and I am not disposed to doubt it, there ought to 
be treasure enough aboard the Marigold to make 
us all rich. Those Spanish galleons used to carry 
stuff in them to run up into the millions, I am told.” 

“ Why, it is not seventy-five years, sir,” said 
Captain Harper, “ since Lord Anson came home 


TREASURE HUNTER 


229 


from a voyage in these very waters, In which he 
picked up a Spanish treasure ship that brought him 
in as much as six millions in gold, I believe.” 

“ If we found half that on the Marigold, there 
would be enough to make us all Independently rich 
forever. Now, gentlemen, here’s to a quick run 
around the Horn, a brisk wind and a clear sea to 
longitude 167^’ 30' west, latitude 4** 10' south and 
the treasure island ! ” 


CHAPTER XVI 


SIGHTING THE TREASURE ISLAND 

Fortune, as if to make up for the many rude 
buffetings to which she had subjected our young 
heroes hitherto, now heaped up her benefits with 
a lavish hand. 

Favoured by a splendid northeasterly breeze the 
Young American made a magnificent run around 
the Horn, making the distance to 50° south lati- 
tude in the Pacific in the then phenomenal time of 
eight days. Thereafter, before a splendid wind, 
she squared away for her long northwesterly cruise 
to longitude 167® 30' west and latitude 4° 10' 
south. 

The long voyage was full of excitement to the 
youngsters. The Pacific Ocean differed materi- 
ally from the Atlantic, and when they got among 
the then little known and almost entirely unex- 
plored islands of the South Seas, every day was 
replete with the most vivid interest. 


230 


BOB DASHA WAY 


231 


The Young American was amply provisioned 
and watered for a much longer cruise than that 
they had undertaken, and although delightful, 
tree-covered islands gave them cool, green invita- 
tions to stop from time to time. Commodore Hark- 
ness steadily held his course. Danger, as a rule, 
lurked about those charming shores. Indeed, 
deadly and formidable reefs encircled most of the 
islets, and troops of fierce and savage cannibals 
often roved within the forest glades. It is more 
than likely that the Young American passed by 
many islands which had never been visited by 
white men, and perhaps never even been seen by 

them. If he had been an explorer, of course 
the commodore would have stopped at these 
islands, but he had other matters more impor- 
tant than mere discovery to engage his attention 

then. 

The Young American was a full manned, a well 
appointed ship. The addition of Mr. Rayton and 
Mr. Harmon to the corps of officers made duty 
easier on everybody, and on the whole no happier 
or more contented crew ever sailed the seas. The 
commodore and Captain Harper were often in 


232 BOB DASHAWAY, 

consultation together. They both lived aft in the 
former’s cabin and had become very friendly in- 
deed. Bob Dashaway was in Mr. Rayton’s watch 
and Jack Barrett in Mr. Truefitt’s, but the boys 
had plenty of time to foregather and exchange 
boyish confidences or listen to yarns by Dethridge 
or Buntlin, or the other old shell-backs of the 
crew, in the long afternoons and in the pleasant 
hours of recreation in the dog watches, of which 
they made full use to their great joy and satis- 
faction. 

The only person not completely happy or con- 
tented on the ship was Master Joel Clawfinger. 
He had lain helpless for some time in the sick bay 
and his disposition had not been much of a prob- 
lem, but when his broken ribs healed, the officers 
were in some doubt as to what was best to do 
with him. Under ordinary circumstances. Com- 
modore Harkness would have had him put in 
double irons and would have handed him over to 
the authorities of the first civilised port at which 
they might touch, to be tried for mutiny on the 
high seas, which would have been a hanging matter. 
But the man was so abjectly penitent, he urged 


TREASURE HUNTER 


233 


that it was through his influence that the lives of 
the officers and the boys had been spared by the 
mutineers on the Betsey; he had no hesitation in 
asserting that Wethers had, in a manner, forced 
him into the mutiny, and he pleaded — which like 
almost everything he said, was a lie, safely told, 
because there was no one to contradict him — that 
he had done his best for the boys in “ The Running 
Bowline,” back in New York before they had all 
been kidnapped; in short, they finally left him at 
large and allowed him to turn to, although they 
kept him under pretty close watch and his future 
was undetermined. 

One reason they did not iron him and imprison 
him was because the commodore was so thoroughly 
confident of the quality of his crew. His men 
were all down-easters who had been shipped at 
Salem and other nearby Massachusetts ports. The 
commodore reasoned rightly enough that there was 
no mischief that Clawfinger could brew among 
such men, and he would be less trouble to all hands 
if he were out than if he were in irons in the brig 
and had to be waited on and watched. Besides, 
he was a good seaman, and even in a full manned 


234 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


ship like the Young American good seamen were 
always in demand. 

Clawfinger played his part perfectly. There 
was not a smarter, a readier and more willing, or a 
more active man on the ship than he. It appeared 
presently that he had been an old-time whaler in 
the South Seas, and having a natural gift of lan- 
guage, he had picked up a fair working knowledge 
of some of the native dialects, and he might prove 
useful as an interpreter on occasion. 

When they had left the Horn some weeks be- 
hind them, the observations taken by the two cap- 
tains and the two mates — to say nothing of the 
boys, who delighted in “ shooting the sun ” with 
their sextants — indicated that they were approach- 
ing the latitude and longitude of the island of their 
quest. Of course navigation in the days of Fran- 
cis Drake was not the nice art that it had become 
at the period of this cruise, but neither captain 
doubted that the latitude and longitude given 
would enable them to find the place by a little 
cruising about. Bright lookouts were kept at the 
mastheads armed with the most powerful glasses 
in the ship. The Young American was hove to 


TREASURE HUNTER 


235 

every night lest she should run by the island in 
the darkness. 

There were no more expert navigators on the 
seas than the four chief officers on that ship, and 
their skill and patience at last brought their re- 
ward, for about two bells or nine o’clock in the 
morning of the fiftieth day from the Horn, the 
lookout sent down from the masthead the ever 
welcome hail: 

“ Land ho ! ” 

It was early in the morning and the ship was 
standing on under easy canvas. As everybody had 
been in a state of expectation for days, all hands 
at once came tumbling out on deck at the news. 

They had no profile of the island and could not 
identify it as they ran toward it under a gentle 
breeze, but its configuration was so peculiar that 
studying it as they ran around it and comparing 
it with the map, which the two captains examined 
from time to time, there was no doubt in anybody’s 
mind that they had at last reached the right 
spot. 

The island was a large one. It appeared to 
be ten or a dozen miles long and as many broad 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


236 

in its greatest extremity over all. It belonged to 
a cluster evidently, for some distance to the south- 
ward — they were approaching it on the north side 
— could be seen other specks of blue that indicated 
other islands. Whatever the group it was the 
northernmost of them, for the horizon was abso- 
lutely clear in every direction except to the south. 

The letter with the map had said that the land 
was inhabited by a fierce and savage people. At 
the distance they then were from the island there 
was, of course, no evidence of humanity visible. 
Nevertheless, the commodore resolved to neglect 
no precaution which would insure the safety of 
the ship and crew. As he drew nearer to the 
island, he reduced sail and slowly approached the 
land with the ship under perfect command. There 
was no telling what hidden reefs, coral or other- 
wise, might surround the island; indeed, some were 
plainly shown on the chart. 

There were sounding marks at several points on 
the chart indicating deep water right up to the 
shores, and the long thumb-like projection, which 
ran out from the north shore of the island and 
curved around until it left a very narrow en- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


237 


trance between it and the main finger, so to speak, 
seemed to enclose a good harbour. It was evi- 
dently the passage through which the Marigold 
had entered the harbour, for there was no other 
way of getting to the cave in the rocks, which the 
plan indicated sheltered her. 

Commodore Harkness ran as close to the land 
as he thought prudent and then hove to the ship. 
The starboard cutter was then called away and 
was manned by a heavily armed boat’s crew. 

Captain Harper was sent in command of it 
with both boys, who begged earnestly to be allowed 
to go with him, as his assistants. There was an 
experienced seaman forward in the bows of the 
boat with a hand lead to take soundings. The 
waves were breaking furiously over a reef, which 
ran along the outer edge of the thumb, but the 
boat party found deep water in the entrance, per- 
haps a hundred yards wide between the tip of the 
thumb and the main land. They rowed across it, 
sounding carefully, finding no rocks but a good 
sandy bottom. And the same conditions happily 
prevailed in the bay. 

The Pacific in this latitude was believed to be 


238 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


treacherous. It would not be safe for the Young 
American to lie to in the offing, especially in these 
unknown seas. A northerly gale would almost 
certainly drive her down on the rocks or reefs. 
Therefore, when the boat party returned to the 
ship, the wind, blowing fair for the mouth of the 
harbour. Commodore Harkness determined to take 
the Young American into the land-locked bay. 
The men of the boat party declared that they had 
seen no human beings on the shore, although they 
had not landed, and had therefore made no ex- 
ploration of the wooded hills which ran down to 
the narrow beach. 

The island seemed to be largely volcanic, the 
product of some great eruption, some mighty up- 
heaval in bygone times. It rose on the south- 
west in a huge towering hill perhaps a thousand 
feet high; straight cliffs fell away from the top 
to the water’s edge at the base of the thumb. The 
rock was riven and splintered, and jagged islets, 
huge buttresses, and needles of rock abounded, and 
the whole was almost completely surrounded by 
coral reefs. Indeed, the only practicable entrance 
for a ship was the opening at the end of the thumb. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


239 

What was inside that bay — Thumb Bay, they soon 
called it — would be developed later. 

Almost the first question the commodore asked 
was as to whether the boat party had seen the cave. 

“ No, sir,” answered Captain Harper, “ we did 
not. In the first place, we did not go far enough 
into the bay, and in the second place, we were so 
busy sounding and looking up a suitable anchorage 
for the ship that we did not have time for anything 
else.” 

“ I looked for the cave, sir,” said Bob brightly, 
“ but there were so many rocks and crevices in the 
cliff that we did not find it.” 

“ It might be well to make a closer inspection,” 
said the captain. 

“ Of course,” returned the commodore, “ but 
time enough for that later on.” 

“ And, by the way, there is a strange thing 
about the map,” continued the captain, “ it does 
not agree with the facts. The map shows a much 
wider entrance than actually appears. It seems to 
me that the cliff on the edge of the thumb yonder, 
which rises very high, has been split by some cause, 
and a large part of it has fallen into the water.” 


240 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


“ Why, that may have been by the earthquake 
that the letter told about,” said Commodore Hark- 
ness. 

“ Aye,” returned Captain Harper, “ and the 
wash of the sea has again opened a narrow pass 
between the thumb and the finger. You know it 
has had a long time to do its work.” 

“ I see. Well, we’ll run in now. Captain 
Harper, since you have been through the passage, 
will you go forward and con the ship ? I, myself, 
will take charge aft. We will go in under tops’ls, 
jibs, spanker, and fore course. Dethridge, send 
your best hands to the wheel.” 

“ Aye, sir, they’ll be Buntlin and Clawfinger. 
There ain’t two men with nicer touch on the spokes 
in the ship, sir.” 

Very good,” said the commodore. “ Mr. 
Truefitt!” 

“ Sir.” 

“ Overhaul your braces, sheets, and halyards. 
Lead them along and have the men ready to jump 
at the order.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

“ Mr. Rayton!” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


241 


Sir.” 

“ Overhaul the ground tackle and make ready 
for dropping the anchor when I give the word.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

“ Silence fore and aft the decks ! ” cried the 
commodore, as Captain Harper and the two offi- 
cers repaired to their several stations. 

In perfect silence the fine ship swept down to- 
ward the narrow pass, which gave entrance into 
the harbour. With Captain Harper to direct, 
with Commodore Harkness to manipulate the sails, 
with two experts at the wheel, and a willing crew, 
the somewhat difficult passage was soon made. 

The Young American presently found herself 
in a completely land-locked harbour. The enor- 
mous ledge of rocks on the thumb, which was en- 
tirely bare of vegetation, rose high enough to shut 
off a view of the sea in that direction. 

Bringing the ship with the same nicety that he 
had exhibited in running the passage to the exact 
spot that Captain Harper indicated was the best 
holding ground. Commodore Harkness brought up 
in seven fathoms of water. There was no wind or 
sea that could blow or rise in that land-locked basin 


242 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


which could disturb the ship. One anchor would 
furnish a sufficiently secure holding, accordingly 
the Young American swung to a long scope by the 
best bower anchor. Her sails were soon furled 
and her yards squared in true man-of-war fashion. 

By this time it was growing late in the evening. 
A most careful scrutiny of the shore, which lay 
perhaps half a mile away, did not reveal any hu- 
man beings, although Captain Harper and the com- 
modore both thought that they discerned evidences 
of native huts under the trees back of the sandy 
beach. 

Everything seemed as peaceful as the Garden 
of Eden. The land was very inviting, and it rose 
to the eastward by gentle slopes, thickly wooded, 
to the high cliff at the southern end. The beach 
shone brilliantly white beneath the declining sun. 

It had been many weeks since the men on the 
ship had had a run on shore, and they looked long- 
ingly at the fair prospect. The land was evidently 
abundantly well watered and fertile, for in places 
the vegetation was rank. Here and there the hills 
were cut by streams, whose waters sparkled in the 
sun as they plunged over the cliffs or meandered 


TREASURE HUNTER 


243 


through the sands and into the bay. The south 
end of the bay was almost closed by a huge cliff 
behind which they could see nothing, although the 
map indicated it was there that the ancient ship 
lay hidden in the cave. 

Commodore Harkness would have been glad 
to allow the men to enjoy a run ashore by 
watches, but he did not yet dare. Counting 
the officers, there were about forty persons on the 
ship, but even with their modern firearms, they 
would stand a slim chance on shore against the 
savage denizens of the island, who would surely 
be present in overwhelming numbers if they were 
present at all. While they all remained in the 
ship the commodore could easily make a good de- 
fence against attack. 

Of course they had not seen any savages yet, 
but there was something ominous about the still- 
ness of the glades, and as such islands were gen- 
erally inhabited, and by fierce and savage cannibals, 
Harkness was forced to deny his men the privilege 
which he would have granted so gladly and which 
they would have enjoyed so thoroughly. He and 
Captain Harper held a long and earnest consulta- 


244 


BOB DASHAWAY 


tion, and finally as the result of it, the old board- 
ing nettings of the war time days, which some 
fancy had caused the commodore to retain aboard 
were triced up fore and aft. The small guns of 
the batteries were cast loose and provided, the arms 
chest opened, and muskets and pistols and cutlasses 
were served out to the men. 

After eight bells the watch on was directed to 
lie down by the guns, while the watch off was 
cautioned to be ready for instant service. Either 
the captain or the commodore was on deck all the 
time throughout the night, which, however, passed 
away peaceably and with no disturbances. The 
ship was not molested, and nothing whatever hap- 
pened to break the quiet of the tropic calm. 


CHAPTER XVII 


CHASED BY THE WAR CANOES 

As soon as the men had eaten breakfast, the two 
largest boats in the ship were dropped alongside. 
One of them Captain Harper and Bob Dashaway 
took charge of, while the other was under the 
direction of Mr. Truefitt, with Jack Barrett as his 
assistant. 

Thumb Bay, as they all called it, extended in- 
ward and southward for a mile or more until the 
headland mentioned was reached. Beyond it the 
bay curved to the eastward and was hidden from 
the ship. No one could see it, but by the map there 
lay the cave in which the Marigold and the treasure 
were to be found if they still existed. 

“ Now, Captain Harper,” said the commodore, 
“ I want you to pull up the bay round yonder point 
and see if you can locate that cave. I want you 
to keep well away from the shore and keep a 
bright lookout for savages. If you should find 
245 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


246 

what you seek, don’t be led into any traps. You 
have more than half the crew of the ship under 
your command and I trust to your discretion, sir. 
This is only an inspection, remember.” 

“ You can depend upon me. Commodore,” said 
Captain Harper soberly. “ I shall carry out your 
orders exactly.” 

“ We are in no hurry, you understand; we have 
all the time there is, and if we locate the Marigold 
we can take our time and consult as to the best 
way of getting out her treasure, if she has any 
treasure about her.” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ That’s all.” 

“ Give way, men ! ” said Captain Harper, and 
amid cheers from the rest of the crew on the ship, 
the seamen bent to their oars and the two boats 
were rowed swiftly down the bay; Captain Har- 
per with the cutter in the lead. 

Commodore Harkness and Mr. Rayton had 
caused every weapon on the ship to be loaded. 
The ship happened to lie with her port broadside 
to the length of the beach; the brass sixes were 
therefore all shifted to port and were carefully 


TREASURE HUNTER 


247 


looked to in case any attack from shore should 
be made by the savages. There was no attack 
to be apprehended from the sterile shores and 
rocky cliffs of the Thumb. In twenty minutes the 
two boats rounded the point and were lost sight of. 

Commodore Harkness and the officers remaining 
on the ship consulted the map long and earnestly 
as the morning wore away without any sight of 
the returning boats. 

“ It should not be more than a mile to that cave. 
They ought to be back by this time,” said the 
commodore uneasily at last, “ unless ” 

“ I know Captain Harper, sir,” said Mr. Ray- 
ton. “ There is not a cooler-headed, more careful 
seaman that lives; he’ll obey your orders to the 
letter, and ” 

“ I have no doubt of it,” assented the commo- 
dore. “ Still, I think I will send the gig up to 
see what has become of them. Mr. Rayton, will 
you take charge? ” 

“ Certainly, sir, gladly.” 

“ Dethridge, call away the gig,” said the com- 
modore, “ and, Mr. Rayton, don’t go any further 
from the ship than the point yonder. Just far 


248 BOB DASHAWAY, 

enough to look down the inner harbour or bay, 
and ” 

“ Boats are coming back, sir,” sang out a man 
forward. 

The commodore and Mr. Rayton ran across the 
deck and peered up the bay. Sure enough the two 
boats were rounding the point. 

“ Keep fast the gig,” said the commodore, star- 
ing hard at the cutters. 

“ They’re coming fast, sir,” said Mr. Rayton. 
“ See how the water whitens about their prows.” 

“ Aye,” returned the commodore, leaning over 
the side and staring ahead. “ They could not be 
working harder if they were rowing a race.” He 
walked rapidly to the forecastle. “ One or two of 
you jump aloft, perhaps you can see what’s the 
matter,” he continued. 

Two or three men sprang into the fore shrouds 
and scrambled up to the crosstrees with cat-like 
agility. They had scarcely settled themselves 
when they hailed the deck. 

“ There’s three big boats full of savages chasin’ 
the cutters, sir,” was the news imparted. 

Indeed, they had scarcely given the information 


TREASURE HUNTER 


249 


when the first of the war canoes rounded the point. 
None of the men on board the Young American 
had ever seen a boat of that kind. She had a high 
prow and stern, and was manned by perhaps sixty 
oarsmen, and carried a number of other men 
brandishing broad-bladed spears and yelling furi- 
ously. Only the fact that she was so heavily over- 
loaded kept her from overhauling the cutters. She 
was followed by two other similar, though slightly 
smaller war canoes. 

The commodore and Mr. Rayton looked on at 
the race for life or death in a great anxiety into 
which the other officers and the men on board fully 
entered. 

“ I think they can do it, sir,” said Mr. 
Rayton at last. “ They’re still some distance 
ahead.” 

“ Aye, but if those devils get to throwing their 
spears.” 

“ They’re not near enough for that yet, I take 
it.” 

“ No, thank God,” said the commodore. 

“Dethridgel” 

“ Sir.” 


250 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Give ’em a shot from that for’ard six-pounder. 
It might startle them.” 

“ Shall I shoot to kill, sir? ” 

“ Don’t shoot until you must, but when you do 
always shoot to kill,” said the commodore, grimly 
enunciating a safe rule. 

Old Dethridge, assembling two or three men 
about the breech of the gun, trained it carefully 
on the approaching war canoe, the ship having 
swung sufficiently for it to bear. It was a nice 
shot. He had to give the piece sufficient eleva- 
tion to be sure to carry over the two boats with 
which the canoes, all of them now in plain sight, 
were in direct line. When he was ready he pulled 
the lock spring. There was a tremendous roar 
accentuated by the cliffs of the bay, and the six- 
pound shot went hurtling toward the enemy. 

In his anxiety to spare his own boats, Dethridge 
had given the piece a little too much elevation. 
Yet it was a beautiful line shot; it cleared the 
heads of the men in the first canoe and struck one 
of the oars on the port side of the second canoe 
which, of course, broke short off, as it plunged 
into the sea. It was not so much the shot as it 


TREASURE HUNTER 


251 


was the smoke and the noise of the report which 
was efficacious, for with wild outbursts of yells 
of terror, the men in the canoes stopped rowing, 
seeing which the men in the cutters redoubled their 
efforts. 

There was really little need for further effort, 
for before Commodore Harkness could get ready 
to give the savages another shot the crews of the 
canoes bent to their paddles again, the boats of the 
savages turned about, and rapidly made their way 
up the bay, rounding the point and disappearing 
as quickly as they had come. 

As they turned broadside to the ship there was 
an excellent chance to sink them. Old Bill Deth- 
ridge, indeed, ventured to ask permission. 

‘‘ May I give ’em the rest of the battery, sir? ” 
he asked respectfully enough. “ I won’t miss ’em 
this time,” he added. 

Commodore Harkness considered the matter a 
moment and finally decided not to allow it. 

“ No,” he said, “ we have frightened them off, 
perhaps we can gain their friendship, and that 
will be better than fighting them. Secure the 


guns. 


252 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


By this time the boats were alongside. 

Mr. Harper scrambled up the battens, followed 
by Bob Dashaway; Mr. Truefitt and Jack Bar- 
rett coming a moment or two later. 

“ Well, sir,” said the commodore. 

“ That was a touch and go with us, sir,” said 
Captain Harper. “ Your shot saved us, my men 
were pretty well spent.” 

“ I am glad you got away safely,” said the com- 
modore. “How was it, sir?” 

“ According to orders,” returned Captain Har- 
per, while the men hooked on the falls and the 
crew ran the boats up to the davits, “ we kept 
carefully away from the shore. We rounded the 
point, rowed down about half a mile until we saw 
the open mouth of the cave, which is scarcely 
more than a huge niche or crevice in the rocks, 
but well sheltered from any wind likely to blow 
or any seas.” 

“ Was there anything in the cave? ” 

The crew were crowded in the gangways just 
forward of the mainmast. The officers were clus- 
tered on the quarter-deck, and everybody was lis- 
tening eagerly. Commodore Harkness raised his 


TREASURE HUNTER 


253 

voice and Captain Harper gave his answer in the 
same tone in order that everybody might hear. 

“ Yes, there was.” 

“ What was it ? ” 

An old-fashioned ship, sir.” 

“Afloat?” 

“ No, sir, lying on her beam ends on the sand 
well above the highest tide. She had been driven 
in there somehow. Her masts were gone. So 
far as we could see from seaward, she was very 
old and in a most dilapidated condition.” 

“ And did you find out her name? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“What was it?” 

“ It was in faded gilt letters across her stern.” 
Captain Harper paused a moment and surveyed 
the crew. 

“Well, sir?” said the commodore impatiently. 
“ The Marigold of Portsmouth! 

At this the men broke into ringing cheers. 
“What next, sir?” 

“ We rowed closer intending to land when sud- 
denly the cliffs above were black with natives. 
They yelled and gesticulated, but I thought I 


BOB DASHAWAY 


254 

would venture on a nearer look as I could not see 
how they could get down to us, consequently we 
pulled slowly in toward the beach before the mouth 
of the cave. Suddenly from the mouth of an 
estuary which seemed to run inland through a 
broad rift in the cliff, a deep ravine to the right 
of where we lay and about a mile distant which 
looked as if it might be the mouth of a river, we 
saw the prow of a big canoe; it came toward us 
followed by two others. We put about and pulled 
for our lives and the rest you know about, sir.” 

“ You have done well,” said the commodore. 
‘‘ Men,” he added, turning to the crew, “ I make 
no doubt the treasure is there, and have it we 
will, all the savages in the Pacific to the contrary 
notwithstanding.” 

And again the old ship resounded with a great 
outburst of cheering, in the midst of which Mr. 
Harmon, who had the watch, touched Commodore 
Harkness on the shoulder. 

“ There are some natives yonder on the beach 
waving palm branches. They evidently want to 
parley, sir,” he said. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


THE BATTLE IN THUMB BAY 

It was even as Mr. Harmon had said. A grow- 
ing number of natives were assembling on the beach 
at the water’s edge, waving palm branches, stretch- 
ing out their hands toward the ship, and calling 
out something in a strange tongue not understand- 
able. Those nearest the ship had already laid 
aside their weapons, and their peaceful intent was 
scarcely to be misunderstood. 

“ Captain Harper,” said the commodore, “ I 
shall have to call upon you again. Take a boat 
and row over toward the shore, keeping well away 
from the beach, however, and on no account mak- 
ing a landing, and see what you can make of them.” 

Very good, sir,” said Mr. Harper. “ Of 

course I do not know their speech, and ” 

“ But did not the man, Clawfinger, say he had 
some knowledge of these South Sea Island dia- 
lects?” 


255 


256 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Yes, sir, he did.’* 

“ Very good. Clawfinger I ” 

“ Here, sir,” answered the man from the crowd 
of seamen who were staring landward. 

“ Go with Mr. Harper and see if you can make 
out what they want.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

“ And hark ye, man I You are not in good 
odour on the ship; if you serve us well in this, 
perhaps I shall be inclined to deal mercifully with 
you later on.” 

“ I’ll do my best, sir.” 

The boat was soon manned again, and a short, 
steady pull brought it within hailing distance of 
the shore. 

The men on the beach made a great jabbering 
outcry, out of which Captain Harper could, of 
course, make nothing. Finally he got some degree 
of silence by standing up and waving his hand, 
and then he nodded to Clawfinger. 

The seaman unshipped his oar, stood up in the 
boat, and said one or two words in a tongue not 
unlike that used by the islanders. 

The words were greeted with a loud shout, and 


TREASURE HUNTER 


257 


then one of the oldest among them, who seemed 
to be a chief, stood out from the throng. Rais- 
ing the spear which he had not discarded, he shook 
it violently in the direction of the boat, and point- 
ing to seaward uttered slowly a dozen words as 
he did so. 

Clawfinger again replied, and a conversation 
took place between the boat and the shore. It 
was terminated by an unusual incident. As he 
spoke his last word, the seaman raised his maimed 
hand and shook it in the face of the man on shore. 

The sight of it produced a miraculous effect. 
With cries of terror and alarm the savages turned 
and fled tumultuously, crashing through the jungle 
and disappearing by narrow trails under the trees 
until there was not one left on the beach ! 

“ Well,” said Captain Harper, who had watched 
the whole scene attentively, “ what about it? Can 
you understand? ” 

“ Pretty well, sir,” answered Clawfinger. 

“ What do they want? ” 

“ They say that the ship in the cave yonder is 
their god, an’ we must keep away from it an’ let 
it alone or they’ll kill us an’ eat us, too. They 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


258 

say we’d better go away, they don’t want us here 
anyway. They don’t like our looks, they are warn- 
ing us against landing, although they’ll let us get 
wood and water if we must have it. I can’t 
make out all of it, but that’s about what they 
mean.” 

“ And why did they run at the last minute? ” 

“ I guess it’s this hand of mine that frightened 
them,” said the man grimly. “ It’s enough to 
frighten anybody, but they think because I am 
different from the rest of ye that maybe I’m a god 
too; leastwise, I figure it out that way.” 

“ We will go back to the ship and report,” said 
Captain Harper. “ Give way, men.” 

A few words put the commodore in possession 
of the facts. He closely questioned Clawfinger, 
but could get nothing more out of him ; neither he 
nor any one aboard had any disposition to doubt 
that the man was telling the truth, so far as he 
chose at least; it was all natural and understand- 
able, and the opposition of the islanders presented 
a most serious difficulty. 

Wood and water were not what they wanted, 
and the very thing that was desired seemed to be 


TREASURE HUNTER 


259 


the very thing that could not be had. The com- 
modore and all on board were more determined 
than ever to visit the Marigold and if she still 
contained the treasure, to fetch it away, but it was 
evident that this could not be done without a battle. 
Whether the ship and her guns and their small arms 
would be enough to counterbalance the disparity 
in numbers was a question. The savages were evi- 
dently fierce, bold, and warlike and very deter- 
mined. 

It was after dinner when all these goings on 
were over, and Commodore Harkness decided that 
nothing further could be done that day. He and 
the officers spent the larger part of the afternoon 
in the cabin discussing various plans and methods 
of action. They questioned Clawfinger again, 
finally suspecting that the man was keeping back 
something, but they had no assurance as to that, 
and were forced finally to dismiss him. A few 
natives were seen from time to time on the shore, 
but no further communication passed between the 
ship and the island. 

At the appointed hour hammocks were piped 
down and the watch off was sent below to sleep. 


26 o 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


Instead of the anchor watch usual in port, the 
commodore kept one full watch on deck. 

About ten o’clock he and Captain Harper con- 
cluded that they would like to have further con- 
versation with Clawfinger. They had determined 
upon a plan, and as he was the only means of com- 
munication with the islanders, he was a very im- 
portant factor in carrying it out. 

Now Clawfinger happened to be a member of 
the watch on deck. The officer of the watch, 
Mr. Truefitt, was asked to rout him out from the 
men sleeping under the boom boats, or by the guns, 
and send him aft. 

In five minutes Mr. Truefitt himself entered the 
cabin with a statement that Clawfinger was not 
to be found. The man’s record was so bad that 
the commodore took the unusual step of ordering 
all hands to be called on deck, quietly of course, and 
without giving any alarm. 

“ This needs to be looked into,” he said to Cap- 
tain Harper. “ Of course, the man may be sulk- 
ing below.” 

“ Not he,” said the captain. “ I have an idea 
that we will find that he has gone ashore.” 


TREASURE HUNTER 


261 


“ And to what end? ” 

“ To stir up those natives against us. You see 
how they were impressed by the sight of his hand ; 
they think he is some kind of a god by his own 
showing. He can speak their language; perhaps 
he can persuade them to some devilment. He’s 
afraid of nothing. Possibly he hopes to seize the 
ship, load her with the treasure, and sail away 
in some fashion with such savage assistance as he 
can get. The man’s bold enough and wicked 
enough to stop at nothing. Come, let us go out 
on deck.” 

The two gentlemen left the cabin and Mr. True- 
fitt reported. 

“ Sir, the crew has been mustered, and Claw- 
finger does not appear to be aboard.” 

“ What did I tell you? ” said the captain. 

“ Shall I let the starboard watch go below and 
turn in again, sir?” asked Mr. Truefitt. 

“ No,” answered the commodore, “ keep them 
on deck. Now that we have got them here let 
them lie down beside the guns if they want to. 
First, let every man get his arms.” 

‘‘ I suppose,” said Captain Harper, “ that Claw- 


262 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


finger slipped overboard and swam ashore. It is 
as dark as pitch and he could easily have got 
away unseen. I have heard the men say that he 
was a fine swimmer! ” 

“ That must be the way of it,” said the commo- 
dore. “ Gentlemen,” he turned to the little group 
of officers, “ we have been too easy with that vil- 
lain. It wouldn’t surprise me if he brought the 
whole island down on us. I don’t think it would 
be well for any of us to turn in to-night. And, 
Mr. TruefittI” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Suppose you get out another anchor, drop a 
stream anchor overboard, passing the cable out 
through the stern cabin window, and do it quietly.” 

The ship was swinging with her port broadside 
toward the beach. Commodore Harkness, there- 
fore, suggested that the starboard stream anchor 
be used. He did not explain why he did this, but 
his orders were carried out, and the starboard 
battery was shifted back in place also. Thereafter 
silence supervened, most of the seamen going to 
sleep on the deck. 

Captain Harper and the commodore repaired 



The seaman stood up in the boat, and said one or two 
words in a tongue not unlike that used 

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TREASURE HUNTER 263 

to the poop deck and talked together in low whis- 
pers. The other officers, except those specifically 
on watch, lay down on the decks like the men to 
get some rest There was no sleep for Bob and 
Jack, however; they were too excited over the 
events of the day and the possibilities of the night 
to be able to close an eyelid. 

At seven bells or about half-past eleven o’clock, 
an alarm was given by a man on watch forward. 
He passed the word to a shipmate, who came run- 
ning aft and reported that he thought he saw boats 
approaching in the darkness. There was some 
current in the bay, evidently produced by the out- 
flow of rivers, not perceptible when the tide was 
coming in, but quite so during the ebb, as 
now. 

“ They don’t seem to be rowing, sir,” said the 
man reporting to Mr. Truefitt. “ They’re slowly 
driftin’ down on us.” 

Commodore Harkness had heard the men run- 
ning aft, and he and Captain Harper leaned over 
the poop rail, directly above Mr. Truefitt’s head, 
and listened. He knew all that had been said, 
therefore, as soon as the man had said it. 


264 bob DASHAWAY, 

“ I suspected as much,” said the commodore. 
“ Pass the word quietly among the men to get 
up and man both broadsides. Take ten men your- 
self, Mr. Truefitt, and go to the forecastle. Give 
Mr. Rayton five men for the poop deck here, the 
rest distribute in the waist to man the batteries. 
Captain Harper, will you take charge of the guns? 
Do all silently, gentlemen; they think to surprise 
us but we will show them. Are those lights 
ready? ” 

“ All ready, sir,” said Mr. Truefitt. 

“ If the boats should get alongside, set fire to 
the tar barrels and heave them overboard. Let 
no one discharge a weapon until I give the word. 
Mr. Dashaway ! ” 

“ Here, sir,” replied Bob. 

“ You and Mr. Barrett will be my personal aids 
during the action, if we have one. Come up here 
on the poop deck.” 

The two boys scampered up the ladder and 
saluted the commodore. The ship was a-bustle 
now with men hurrying to their several stations. 
They went without noise and confusion like the 
well trained seamen they were. 


TREASURE HUNTER 265 

By this time the approaching boats could be 
made out dimly. They were slowly drifting down 
with the tide and current. In the darkness they 
seemed to the commodore to be huge war canoes 
like those which had pursued the cutters in the 
morning. 

“ Boys,” said the old man, “ this is like old 
times, isn’t it? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ You remember the day we fought off the 
Endymion^ s boats without any more men than we 
have aboard now? ” * 

“ Indeed we do, sir,” answered Bob. 

“ If we could beat off white men, we can make 
short work of these savages,” said Jack. 

“ I am not so sure about that,” said the commo- 
dore. “ At any rate, it will be no easy job. 
“Ah!” he exclaimed. “What was that?” 

There was a splash in the water. The savages 
broke out their paddles evidently, and were com- 
ing to attack the ship on both sides. 

“ Mr. Dashaway, my compliments to Captain 
Harper, tell him to open fire with his starboard 
* See Bob Dashaway, Privateersman, for this heroic defence. 


266 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


and port guns as the canoes get in range, without 
further orders and at his discretion.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” said Bob, scampering forward. 

“ Mr. Barrett, tell Mr. Truefitt on the forecastle 
to hold his fire until he is actually boarded. In 
general, pass the word for the men to keep fast 
their small arms until the savages are swinging 
at the nettings if they get that far. Every shot 
must tell.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” said Jack, turning and jumping 
down the ladder and disappearing in the dark- 
ness. 

The canoers had all turned to their paddles as 
could be seen by the splashing and whitening of the 
water in the darkness. As the savages used no 
rowlocks,* they made no sound or but little. 

There was a gentle offshore breeze blowing 
which helped the boats, and with the paddle, cur- 
rent, tide, and wind they came on swiftly. 

Commodore Harkness leaned over the rail star- 
ing ahead. 

“Why doesn’t Captain Harper begin?” he 
thought anxiously. 

But Captain Harper was waiting until the op- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


267 

portune moment. There seemed to be six or seven 
of these big canoes, and as each one contained from 
sixty to a hundred men, the number of assailants 
was upwards of five hundred. 

Captain Harper, who was a very cool and de- 
liberate man, waited until the first two boats on 
either side were opposite the bows of the ship, and 
then he suddenly shouted in a tremendous voice: 

“ Fire ! ” 

The eight six-pounders, four on each side, shat- 
tered the silence of the night by the roar of their 
discharge. The sound of the cannon was instantly 
lost in an outburst of hideous, fierce, blood-curdling 
yells from the savages, intermingled with the 
groans and shrieks and the crushing sound of splin- 
tered wood. At this juncture Mr. Truefitt threw 
overboard two lighted tar barrels, one on either 
side, which burned brightly, making everything on 
the water plainly visible from the decks. 

The broadsides on either hand had been well 
aimed and had carried death and destruction to 
numbers of men in the closely packed canoes. One 
canoe had been fairly cut in two and drifted away 
out of the battle. The others had been badly 


268 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


smashed, but there remained three or four canoes 
which had not received any fire at all. 

The courage of the savages was of the highest 
order, for apparently undaunted or undismayed by 
the frightful welcome they had received, all of the 
canoes dashed at the ship pell-mell. There was 
no time to load the broadside guns again before 
the big war boats of the savages smashed against 
the side of the Young American. In an instant 
the rail was black with heads. The islanders 
clung like monkeys to the boarding nettings with 
one hand while they thrust at the crew with their 
long spears with the other. 

“ Now is your time, men,” cried Commodore 
Harkness, “ give it to them ! ” 

There were three or four pistols all charged and 
ready for every man, and the ship was soon sur- 
rounded by a ring of crackling fire. The courage 
of the savages was high, but they were not used 
to firearms, the discharge of the morning was the 
first that they had heard, and when the leaden 
bullets ripped and tore through the wall of men, 
sometimes two or three deep about the ship, it was 
more than savage flesh and blood could stand. 


TREASURE HUNTER 269 

They dropped back into their boats in wild con- 
fusion. 

“ Well done, lads,” cried the commodore, “ pour 
it into them while they are breaking away ! Give 
’em a dose that will teach ’em a lesson. Captain 
Harper.” 

“ The ship’s under way, sir! ” suddenly roared 
Mr. Truefitt from the forecastle, and indeed all 
on board were conscious that the Young American 
was swinging seaward and toward the rocky shore 
of the thumb under a wind and tide and current. 
“ Somebody has cut our cable,” continued the mate 
in great alarm. 

Commodore Harkness realised what had hap- 
pened. Some one, thinking the ship still swung to 
the single cable, had cut it, hoping to see her drift 
upon the shore, in which case she would be wrecked 
and then be an easy prey. It was just because he 
had foreseen the possibility of such an attempt that 
the commodore had anchored astern with a stream 
cable. The movement of the ship, however, had 
an unusual effect on the attackers, for as she swung 
with the current she dragged clear of the canoes 
to starboard, which immediately pulled away in 


270 


iBOB DASHAWAY,' 


the darkness, while she ground down upon the 
canoes to port, huddling them together in a help- 
less mass. Commodore Harkness saw what was 
happening. He roared out: 

“ Starboard watch, lay aft here and clap a tackle 
into the stream cable and heave it short! Port 
watch, attend to those villains in the boat. Mr. 
Rayton 1 ” 

“Sir?” 

“ Take charge of the starboard watch and get 
that stream cable short. Lively I ” 

“ Very good, sir,” said Mr. Rayton, rushing into 
the captain’s cabin with the watch, some of them 
carrying a heavy watch tackle. Meanwhile the 
port watch clambered up on the rail and emptied 
their remaining pistols and muskets into the huddle 
of men, grinding together in the canoes under the 
ship’s counter. 

There was a brief, fierce moment or two of 
swaying, desperate fighting until the ship brought 
up against the stream cable, which Mr. Rayton 
had by this time got hove short. The canoes 
finally worked clear and disappeared. Neither the 
commodore nor the captain having the least fear 


TREASURE HUNTER 


271 


of a renewal of hostilities on the part of the 
savages, a survey of the ship was made for acci- 
dents and casualties. 

Three men of the crew had been killed, every 
one of them by a spear thrust. The spear was still 
sticking through the heart of one of the men lying 
on the deck. Four more had been wounded, two 
having received especially nasty cuts, which, how- 
ever, did not promise to end seriously. 

The boarding nettings had been cut and severed 
here and there by the sharp spears, but no other 
damage had been sustained. 

The cut cable had been taken aboard, and the 
severed end was examined by the two captains.. 
It had been cut clear through by a sharp knife, 
and as it was probable that none of the savages 
possessed such a knife, evidently that was Claw- 
finger’s work, as the clever idea was undoubtedly 
his. 

“Did any one see him in the action?” asked 
the commodore. 

No one had. 

“ He is responsible for it all,” said Captain 
Harper. 


272 


BOB DASHA WAY 


“ Of course,” answered Commodore Harkness 
grimly. “Well, we’ll deal with him when we 
get him. Meanwhile, what time is it?” He 
pulled out his watch. “ Captain Harper,” he ex- 
claimed, “ would you believe it, the whole affair 
has taken just about twenty minutes. Let the 
watch off go below and turn in. Who has the 
deck? ” 

“ I have, sir,” said Mr. Rayton. 

“ I don’t apprehend any further attack to-night, 
but see that you have a line of lookouts posted and 
have them keep their weather eyes lifting for any- 
thing from the shore. I guess there’ll be no more 
trouble until morning. Captain Harper, if you 
are not too sleepy, we can discuss our programme 
for the morrow in the cabin.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


PLANNING THE ATTACK 

The rest of the night passed away uneventfully. 
During the most of the next day heavily armed 
boat parties were sent out to take soundings of 
Thumb Bay. One of the six-pounders was mounted 
in the bow of the launch, the largest of the small 
boats, and she was sent ahead to cover the other 
boats and prevent a possible attack by the war 
canoes. But the savages seemed to have had 
enough of it the night before, and the boats were 
not molested. 

The launch was in charge of Dashaway and 
Barrett, with old Dethridge and Jack Buntlin to 
assist them, while the officers did the sounding 
work with the other boats — just what it was all 
for, nobody quite knew. The boys were spoiling 
for a fight, but no opportunity was afforded them. 
Except for a stray native here and there under 
the trees, they saw no one. Late in the afternoon 
273 


274 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


a number of the savages assembled on the beach, 
but some sharp musket practice by the two captains 
and the lads dispersed them with considerable loss. 
As the commodore said: 

“ It is just as well every time we get a chance 
to take it now and show them what we can do 
and how we can do it.” 

“ Yes,” said Captain Harper, “ before we get 
through they will have a wholesome respect for 
our firearms.” 

“ I am sorry that they did not meet us peace- 
ably, though,” said the commodore. “ I have 
been a fighter more or less all of my life, but I 
confess I don’t fancy it.” 

“ Nor I,” said Captain Harper, “ but what could 
we do, they were the aggressors at first, and ” 

“ Oh, we’ll have to carry it through now,” an- 
swered the commodore. 

By nightfall all hands were thoroughly tired 
out. Everybody had taken a turn in the boats 
and the officers and men were glad enough when 
the recall was hoisted and they came back to the 
ship. 

Not a thing had been seen of Clawfinger during 


TREASURE HUNTER 


275 


the day, and the officers scarcely fancied that there 
was danger of another attack that night; never- 
theless, no precautions were neglected. The 
watches were set with unusual care and everything 
was made ready. The dead men had been burled 
late in the afternoon and all the wounded were 
doing well. The Young American, of course, 
carried no surgeon, being a merchant ship, but both 
captains had a fair knowledge of medicine and 
surgery, and attended to the sufferers under the 
circumstances without much difficulty. 

At eight bells the officers were called to a con- 
ference in the commodore’s cabin. To this con- 
ference, to their great delight. Bob and Jack were 
bidden. There the plans for the next day were 
outlined to all of them and they were sent back 
to their watches, their hammocks, or their berths. 

Just as soon as the first flush of dawn lightened 
the east, the launch was hoisted out, and the larg- 
est kedge anchor was put aboard her. This anchor 
was carried up the bay at the end of a long scope 
of cable and dropped overboard. The ship was 
then kedged or hauled up to the anchor. The 
process was repeated again and again until pres- 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


276 

ently after an hour of hard labour she was dragged 
around the point and in a short time afterward she 
came to anchor abreast the cave and within easy 
cannon shot distance of the beach. 

The movements of the ship had, of course, been 
noted from the shore, and although but few na- 
tives were visible in the thick undergrowth, it was 
quite evident that they were assembled in great 
masses in the shelter of the trees. 

Now the cave was right in the middle of a wall 
of rock several hundred feet high. On the left 
there was no approach. On the right of the en- 
trance as they looked at it, a gentle beach ran 
along the foot of the cliff opening at a half mile 
away into a sort of a cleft with gently ascending 
sides thickly wooded, through which a brook or 
river flowed into the bay. As Captain Harper had 
told them, from the foot of the cliff to the left 
of the opening into the cave, rose a jagged, splin- 
tered needle or column of rock. It seemed almost 
as if it had been cut away by a gigantic axe from 
the main cliff. The top was just on a level with 
the cliff. The water side of this pinnacle was 
very broken; it was in plain view from the ship. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


277 

and the commodore studied it carefully with his 
glasses. 

“ I think there is no doubt but what they can 
do it,” he said to Captain Harper. 

“ I am sure of it.” 

“ Mr. Barrett!” 

“Sir?” 

“ There is your needle of rock! Take six men 
and the dinghy, get ready to row ashore there, 
get to the top of it and carry out the orders we 
gave you last night. Remember, you are not to 
fire until it is necessary. Don’t go shooting away 
your ammunition at nothing at all. Don’t fire 
until it counts. You understand?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ You will have some trouble getting to the 
top of that needle, but I think you can do it if you 
are careful.” 

“ We’ll do it, sir,” said Barrett confidently, turn- 
ing away, and with the six men who had been 
previously detailed, entering the dinghy, which had 
been lowered on the starboard side of the ship 
where it would not be seen from the shore. 

“ I think you had better wait,” said the commo- 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


278 

dore, stepping to the side and looking over as the 
man broke out the oars, “ until we open fire. We 
want this to be a kind of a surprise. You have 
all your weapons with you? ” 

“ Yes, sir,” said Barrett, “ every man has two 
pistols and a musket.” 

“And you have plenty of ammunition? ” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Very well. Just as soon as the battle begins, 
I will leave you free to act In accordance with 
your discretion. Take one of my own private 
rifles with you and save it for a long shot.” 

As the commodore spoke he handed the boy a 
new and especially powerful and long range rifle. 
Jack saluted and the boat swung to its painter. 
Every man was ready and anxious to go. His de- 
tachment had been selected from among the most 
active, daring, cool-headed light yardmen in the 
ship. 

“ Now, Captain Harper,” added the commo- 
dore, “ you are to take charge of the batteries 
with both the second mates to assist you. Mr. 
Truefitt and Mr. Rayton will load all but six 
men into the launch. These six men with you and 


TREASURE HUNTER 


279 


the two officers will have to attend to the discharge 
of the great guns. Every shot must be made to 
tell.’^ 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” answered Captain Harper and 
the various other officers. 

There was a little bustle for a few moments as 
the launch was filled with men while those desig- 
nated to remain aboard took their places at the 
guns of the battery, which had all been shifted to 
starboard again, one being mounted temporarily 
on the topgallant forecastle. 

They were trained to cover the beach down 
which of necessity any force of natives must come. 
It was still very early in the morning. The sun- 
light was behind the cave, the interior of it was 
quite dark. By the aid of the glass the commo- 
dore could distinguish the dim outlines of an old- 
fashioned ship, dismasted and lying over on her 
beam ends. Everything else but that was indis- 
tinct to the last degree, although every eye on the 
ship through every convenient port searched the 
black cavern with eager curiosity. 

When all was ready the commodore stepped over 
to the starboard side where the boats lay. He had 


28 o 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


been in action many times; fighting was more or 
less a matter of course to him., yet he was re- 
luctant to give the word in this instance, for he 
could not tell exactly how things might turn out. 

He turned forward, then swept the bay with his 
glass. At the extreme upper end he saw several 
of the war canoes drawn up on the beach; some 
of them appeared to be badly shattered. There 
was no evidence of life about them, however. He 
guessed, and guessed rightly, that having had one 
try at him by that means, the savages would resort 
to other methods to stop him. He had a some- 
what healthy respect for the military genius of 
Clawfinger, who had shown himself a remarkable 
man, and he wondered just what the sailor would 
do, but there was no help for it, the word had to 
be given. 

“ Give away, Mr. Truefitt,” he said, “ and 
pull very slowly, just as slowly as you can, around 
the bow of the ship and toward the shore. I think 
your appearance will call the savages down to the 
strand, where we can open on them with our guns. 
Your men are all armed, but you are not to dis- 
charge a weapon until it is absolutely necessary; 


TREASURE HUNTER 


281 


after we have checked the rush that will probably 
come down the sands, you are to dash for the cave. 
Mr. Barrett and his men will cover you. Once 
you get inside I think you will be safe.” 

“ And if we should find the cave occupied, sir? ” 
asked Mr. Truefitt. 

“ In that case,” answered the commodore, “ you 
will have to clear it out the best way you can. You 
have a score of good lads with you, plenty of am- 
munition, pikes, and cutlasses to spare. Has every 
man of yours got a steel boarding cap on? ” 

“ Yes, sir, every one.” 

“Well then, go, and God bless you. Reserve 
your fire, but when the time does come, give it to 
them. Mr. Rayton, should anything happen to 
Mr. Truefitt you will be in command.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

“ Mr. Dashaway, you have a potent piece in 
that boat gun. Don’t get nervous and fire it off 
until you get the order.” 

“ No, sir,” said Bob eagerly. 

He was stationed in the bow of the launch, with 
Jack Buntlin, in charge of the boat gun, a small 
brass cannonade. 


282 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


“ Mr. Barrett! ” said the commodore. 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ You are not to move until the first broadside 
gun is fired. What wind there is is going down 
the bay, and the smoke will cover you; besides 
they’ll be so excited they won’t be apt to notice 
you, and your men are to row their best 
to get under the lee of that pinnacle in short 
order.” 

“ Aye, aye, sir.” 

The commodore looked long at the boys and 
men. Somehow he had never been so reluctant to 
give the word to begin an action. 

“ If any of you get a chance at that arch fiend, 
Clawfinger,” he said at last, “ don’t lose it.” 

“ No, sir! ” burst from every throat on the other 
side of the ship. 

The commodore smiled. The men were in 
good temper. 

“ Give away, Mr. Truefitt,” he said at last. 

The next instant the heavy launch drew ahead 
of the bow of the ship, which brought it in plain 
view from the shore, toward which it was very 
slowly rowed. As if in response to a magic signal 


TREASURE HUNTER 283 

the cleft to the far right was immediately filled 
with masses of men. The island was evidently ex- 
ceedingly populous and there may have been a 
thousand warriors armed with clubs, spears, and 
shields. 

As the launch slowly moved toward the cave, a 
mass of men in the ravine came out on the beach. 

“ By Heavens,” exclaimed the commodore, 
“ there must be a thousand of them ! ” 

He noticed they formed up in some kind of rude 
order and observed them running along the strand 
toward the cave. 

‘‘ Look yonder, sir I ” cried Mr. Harmon, who 
was standing nearest him at the first gun. 

He pointed upward, and the top of the cliff was 
seen to be lined with men. The tactics of the sav- 
ages were simple indeed, and yet they were quite 
adequate and moreover the best that could be de- 
vised. The men on top of the cliff were to hurl 
a rain of spears down on the boat’s crew as soon 
as they landed, while the men on the beach would 
rush them and endeavour to capture them. There 
were a number of men in the masses, who by their 
size and bearing seemed to be chiefs, but nowhere 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


284 

was Clawfinger to be seen, although it was ob- 
viously his mind which had arranged the plan of 
operations. 

“ Captain Harper,” said the commodore, “ give 
them a shot from that bow gun on the fo’c’s’l. 
Depress it so that the shot strikes water first, I 
don’t want to discourage them too much at the 
first flush,” continued the old man grimly, “ I want 
to get them in closer range.” 

The thought of those poor dead and wounded 
seamen of his rankled in the old man’s mind evi- 
dently. 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” said Captain Harper, elevating 
the breach of the forward gun and pulling the lock 
spring. 

There was a deep roar in the narrow bay and 
the battle was on. Designedly the shot struck the 
water of the bay near the shore, splashing a few 
of the savages but with no other effect. It was 
greeted with derisive shouts and yells by the 
islanders. They had got somewhat used to noise 
by this time. 

The instant the report was heard. Jack Barrett’s 
men got under way. The little dinghy fairly 


TREASURE HUNTER 285 

leaped through the water as she darted around the 
stern of the ship and made her way to the pinnacle 
of rock. So far as those on the ship could tell, 
no one from the shore noticed her or paid any 
particular attention to her. At any rate in an in- 
credibly short time the boat passed over the open 
water and reached the islet. 

Carefully securing the boat, Barrett and his 
sailors sprang out and began the ascent of the cliffs. 
It was a very difficult and a very dangerous task. 
If they had stopped to think about it they might 
have flinched from it, but they went at it with 
vigour and determination, encouraged by the cheers 
of the men on the ship and stimulated by the yells 
of the savages, for at that instant, as the launch 
was approaching nearer and nearer the mouth of 
the cave, the islanders broke into a mad run and 
came streaming down the beach toward the en- 
trance, apparently resolved to meet the launch on 
her landing. 

“Now, Captain Harper!” cried the commo- 
dore. “ Give it to them one by one 1 ” 

The guns had been loaded with langridge, canvas 
bags of small missiles of every sort, which tore 


286 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


open on striking and scattered death and destruc- 
tion in every direction. 

The running mass of savages was an easy target. 
The first discharge, carefully aimed, tore up the 
whole front rank; the momentum of the mass, 
however, was so great, and there were so many 
of them, that they came rolling down the beach 
quite unchecked. Gun after gun sent its message 
of death into them. The advance became slower; 
finally it stopped. 

One man, evidently a chief, leaped out in front 
of the men, shook his spear, and shouted something. 
Taking new heart, the survivors, who still num- 
bered hundreds, again came on. 

Commodore Harkness, who was a wonderful 
shot with a rifle, drew a fine bead upon him with 
him own favourite weapon and pulled the trigger. 
In the very act of charging the man leaped into 
the air and fell dead with the bullet in his heart. 
The savages stopped at this, and an opportune 
discharge of two of the forward guns, which had 
been hastily reloaded, took the heart out of them 
for the time being. 

They ran in sudden panic back up the beach and 


TREASURE HUNTER 


287 


disappeared in the ravine. Not all of them, how- 
ever, for the white sand was spotted with dead and 
dying men. It was a hideous sight to see some of 
them writhing in their agonies. 


CHAPTER XX 


THE FIGHT ON THE BEACH 

“Now is your time, Mr. Truefitt!” bellowed 
the commodore through his speaking trumpet 
“ Lively, make a dash for it! ” 

Mr. Truefitt waved his hand. 

“ Give way hard ! ’’ he cried. 

The boat, which had been scarcely drifting, sud- 
denly shot forward under the momentum given 
by her strong-armed oarsmen. Their position was 
still one of extreme danger, however, for the top 
of the cliff was lined with men. The range was 
too great for the ordinary small arms on the Young 
American, and it was impossible to elevate the 
broadside guns sufficiently for their shot to rake 
the top of the cliff which towered far above them. 

Mr. Truefitt had instant warning of what he 
might expect, for as the boat swept toward the 
beach, the air was filled with a shower of spears, 
hurled with tremendous force and skill by the men 
288 


BOB DASHAWAY 289 

on the brink of the cliff above the cave. In their 
excitement, however, the savages had discharged 
their first volley too soon, for only one spear 
reached the boat. This buried itself in the for- 
ward thwart, which was next Bob Dashaway’s back 
and between the two bow oarsmen. 

The commodore and the men on the ship cast 
anxious glances from the launch to the pinnacle. 
A few more feet and the launch would be within 
easy range of the spearmen. Would Barrett and 
his men gain the top in time? At that very in- 
stant, the crack of a small firearm resounded above 
their heads and a faint puff of blue smoke arose 
from the top of the pinnacle. 

“ Good ! ” exclaimed the commodore. “ The 
boy’s on top ! ” 

The next instant the air was filled with the sound 
of a volley. The eager watchers on the top saw 
four of the savages standing on the very brink of 
the cliff pitch forward and come crashing down 
upon the beach below. A scattering and ineffective 
discharge of spears from the top met the launch, 
but the savages were so surprised and alarmed by 
the spitting fire which came rattling and crashing 


290 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


from the top of the pinnacle, not twenty feet away 
from them, that the spears did no damage, although 
several grazed one or two of the men in the boat. 

They were brave, these islanders, for while some 
of them strove to throw spears at the cutter, others 
sought to get sight of the men on the needle in 
the hope of spearing them. But the top of the 
needle was very ragged, there was plenty of cover, 
and Jack Barrett had disposed of his men very 
cunningly. Some of them were old men-o’-war’s 
men familiar with weapons. They loaded and 
fired with remarkable speed. The game was too 
unequal. The broad-bladed spear was no match 
for a heavy ship’s pistol or a heavier musket at 
that distance. The discharge soon cleared the top 
of the cliff, for every native who would walk fled 
incontinently at last. There was no further danger 
to be apprehended from them. 

The boy and the party had done their important 
work perfectly. The next instant the keel of the 
launch grated on the beach. The men in her 
cheered like mad, they thought that their task was 
over; the hardest part was still to come, although 
they did not then know it. The oars were shipped 


TREASURE HUNTER 


291 


inboard and the men rose to their feet ready to 
debark, when the sharp eye of Bob Dashaway 
caught sight of a moving figure. 

“There’s somebody in the cave, sir!” he 
cried. 

The next instant the whole place was black with 
men. There must have been seventy-five of them, 
and they seemed like two hundred as they came 
running out from the shelter of the ancient ship 
and from recesses and niches of the crevices of the 
cave. They were swift-footed and alert beyond 
expression. Somebody commanded them who 
knew how to manoeuvre them, for before the men 
in the boat realised their position, they had formed 
and poured in a terrific rain of spears, which they 
followed by a great rush on the cutter. 

The first spear struck Mr. Truefitt, who had 
gone forward, fair in the throat, and almost cut 
off his head. Another spear pierced one of the 
seamen through the back; several others were 
wounded. It was the quickness of Bob Dashaway 
that saved the day. Mr. Truefitt, dead before 
he could open his mouth, could give no order; 
indeed, there was no time. The launch lay so 


292 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


that its bow pointed directly at the rushing mass. 
Without a second’s hesitation, Bob pulled the lock 
string of the boat cannonade. There was a flash 
of fire, a burst of smoke, and a deafening roar, 
the noise of the discharge being thrown back by 
the walls of the cave. 

The shot did frightful execution; perhaps a 
score of the savages were killed or so seriously 
wounded as to be helpless, and many cM:hers were 
slightly wounded. The rush was stopped for a 
moment, and that moment gave the Americans the 
time they needed. 

Mr. Rayton, seeing that poor Mr. Truefitt was 
stone dead, at once assumed the command. 

“ Rush them ! ” he cried in his great voice. 
“Lively! Your pistols first and then give ’em 
your cutlasses I Bear a hand, for God’s sake 1 ” 

The men needed no urging. The peril in which 
they stood was so tremendous that they realised 
their lives depended on their efforts. They were 
not fighting for treasure now, but something far 
more dear. They leaped out of the boat, up the 
strand, all except one or two who were wounded, 
and fired their pistols at the savages as they did so. 


TREASURE HUNTER 


293 

In their excitement, however, their aim was not 
particularly good. 

The savages also recovered from the first shock, 
and a white figure, half naked, suddenly appeared 
on the wreck of the Marigold, a voice that Bob 
Dashaway knew shouted words they could not 
recognise in a strange tongue, and a hand whose 
claw-like fingers, some of them could mark even 
in their excitement, hurled a spear with unerring 
aim at the nearest seaman. It struck him full in 
the breast, and he went down like a felled 
ox. 

The next instant, with a roar of rage and a yell 
of hatred, the two bodies met. The spears were 
more or less useless in such a close joined melee 
as that in the cave. The cutlass was a far handier 
and a far deadlier weapon, and every man had an 
undischarged pistol still, with which he could give 
good account of himself. The odds were heavy 
against the white men, however, about fifty to fif- 
teen. Then ensued such a battle in the cave as 
Homer would have loved to tell about. Hacking, 
cutting, thrusting on the part of the white men; 
clubbing, stabbing, wrestling on the part of the 


294 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


brown. Cheers, savage yells, groans, cries of ter- 
ror, the crack of pistols filled the place with a 
horrid sound. 

On the brink of the needle, Barrett and his men 
could look down into the cave. They dared not 
leave their places, because if they did, the savages 
would man the cliff once more and no one would 
ever leave the cave alive. On the ship the handful 
of men there stared at the struggle going on, which 
they could see but which they were powerless to 
help. They could not leave the ship and her guns, 
for if they did so, the savages would mass on the 
beach. They were already reassembling in the 
cleft and an occasional cannon shot was required 
to keep them back. 

The spectators were like people observing a play 
in a theatre, only no play was ever like this since 
the days of the Roman gladiators. The old com- 
modore wrung his hands in anguish. 

“ My God ! ” he said to Captain Harper, who 
stood by him white-faced. “ I wish we had never 
heard of this cursed treasure. I would give it all 
for the lives of those men. Do you think they’ll 
be able to master them?” 


TREASURE HUNTER 295 

“ I don’t know, sir,” answered Captain Harper. 
“ There is one dead man and one helpless in the 
boat now, and it seems to me there must be a half- 
thousand savages in the cave.” 

“ Aye,” said the commodore, “ and one of the 
dead ones is Mr. Truefitt. I wonder where Bob 
is and the other officers and men? ” 

“ Safe, I hope and pray,” said Captain Harper. 

“ And, sir,” returned the commodore, “ I would 
give the remaining years of my life for a score of 
men to clean them out.” 

“ Give me a boat,” said Captain Harper. 
“ Mr. Harmon and I will 

The commodore shook his head. 

“ It would be over before you could get there. 
If our men are beaten it would only add two more 
men to their victims. We can only wait and hope 
and pray, sir.” 

Upon the cliff pinnacle looking down into the 
cave, in which he ceuld see one and all. Jack Bar- 
rett and his men stared in the same anguished 
misery. The sweat poured down the boy’s face. 
He exclaimed to old Jack Buntlin, who was with 
him : 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


296 

“ I’d give anything on earth to be down there 
with Bob.” 

“ We’ve got to stay here, sir,” said Buntlin. 
“ We’ve got to hold this place; if they do overcome 
them bloody niggers, they’d never git out alive 
unless we keep the top of the cliff clear.” 

All these things take more time to tell than they 
did to act. Such tremendous fighting as was going 
on in the cave could not long continue. Presently 
the anxious watchers above and on the ship saw a 
dark figure stagger out from the cave and dart 
up the beach. 

“ There goes one beaten man I ” cried Captain 
Harper triumphantly. 

At that instant a musket shot from the pinnacle 
was heard and the fleeing man plunged forward 
dead. Jack Buntlin had done that service. The 
next second it seemed that the beach was black 
with men, for a score or more of the savages 
suddenly burst out of the cave. Most of them 
were weaponless, and they ran in wild and furious 
haste up the beach toward the cleft to the right; 
hard on their heels pressed ten of the Americans 
coming out of the cave. Between the first Amer- 


TREASURE HUNTER 297 

ican pursuer and the last flying savage ran a white 
man, half naked — Clawfinger! The muskets on 
the top of the cliff pinnacle cracked violently, some 
of the savages fell. They were running with the 
speed of the wind, however, and in mad terror. 
The distance between the last savage and the white 
man increased, and the distance between the fleeing 
white man and the nearest American decreased. 

“Who is that?” asked the old commodore, 
peering shoreward, his glass neglected in the ex- 
citement. 

“Clawfinger, sir!” answered Captain Harper. 

“ Clawfinger ! By the living God ! Who is 
nearest in chase?” 

“ Mr. Rayton 1 ” cried Captain Harper. 
“ Look!” 

The mate was weaponless. He had discharged 
both his pistols, his cutlass had been broken at 
the hilt and thrown away, but he had seized one 
of the broad-bladed spears with which the savages 
were armed. His clothes had been half torn from 
his body in the fight. He was a big, heavy man, 
and he was heavily booted. The fleeing man was 
half naked and in his bare feet. He was fleeing 


298 BOB DASHAWAY, ^ 

for his life; he knew what would happen to him 
if he was captured, but the man pursuing was 
animated by as fell and determined a purpose as 
ever filled the breast of man. Treachery, mutiny, 
murder, the loss of a ship, the death of gallant 
comrades, their present dangerous plight, were 
charged against this fleeing sailor, and Mr. Rayton 
ran as he had never run before, as no one ever 
suspected he could run, while those on ship and 
needle watched the race. 

“He is gaining on him!” cried Jack Barrett 
on the rock, his face flaming with excitement. 

“ He will get him, never fear,” said Captain 
Harper on the ship. 

“ Take him alive! ” roared the commodore, al- 
though no voice could have carried that distance. 

The most awful and paralysing fear that could 
fill a man was in Clawfinger’s heart. He felt that 
his pursuer was gaining on him. He did not know 
who that pursuer could be, but whoever he was 
there would be black death in his heart. He cast 
a glance behind him and discerned that the nearest 
pursuer was the mate, who was far ahead of the 
next white person, who appeared to be a small 


TREASURE HUNTER 


299 


boy, also running very fast Both pursuer and 
pursued were drawing near the cleft full of sav- 
ages which meant safety to one, death to the other. 
Clawfinger redoubled his efforts, calling out to his 
wild friends. 

The mate and Bob Dashaway were coming like 
a storm. They saw the islanders coming out on 
the beach. Neither of the two cared anything 
for that. The mate would have pursued Claw- 
finger into the very jaws of hell and Bob would 
have followed them. The rest of the seamen came 
hurrying on some little distance in the rear of these 
two. 

“ My God ! ” said the commodore on the ship. 
‘‘ If they don’t catch him, or stop him, they will 
be into the thick of those savages and their death 
will be certain.” 

‘‘Shall I give them a shot, sir?” asked Cap- 
tain Harper. 

“ Aye.” 

Again the heavy gun forward roared out over 
the waters of the harbour, and this time the shot 
struck just in front of the assembling savages, who 
were gathering in eager anticipation that the pur- 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


300 

sued would lead the pursuers into their arms. But 
the race was almost over. The mate was hard on 
the heels of the sailor. 

‘‘ Turn, you mutinous dog! You traitor! You 
murderer! You ’’ he panted out. 

Clawfinger, seeing that he would be overtaken, 
wheeled suddenly in his tracks, his hand went to 
his belt, there was a flash of something white and 
gleaming in the air, and the next instant the sailor’s 
sheath knife, thrown with astonishing skill, buried 
itself to the hilt in the mate’s left shoulder. 

But Clawfinger might as well have thrown a 
feather into the face of a tornado. It had taken 
a moment to turn and throw. That was enough, 
for the next second the mate, spear lifted, was 
upon him. Before the man would move hand or 
foot or turn aside, Mr. Ray ton with all the strength 
and force and power of his arm and with all the 
venom and ferocity in his heart, drove the spear 
into the man’s breast and through his heart until 
it stood out three feet behind him. He fell crash- 
ing down on the sand as if he had been stricken 
by a thunderbolt, and the next instant the mate 
collapsed on the top of him. 


TREASURE HUNTER 301 

The savages from the ravines rushed to the 
prostrate pair, but Bob Dashaway reached them 
first. He still had two pistols and both were 
charged. In his excitement in the cave, he had 
forgotten to use them. He whipped out one and 
fired it point-blank into the mass of savages, and 
before they could recover from that discharge, 
he let them have the second. They hesitated, 
stopped, and then bravely led came slowly on. A 
rifle shot, a far one and a long one, came from the 
pinnacle and caught the leader in the breast and 
he went down. Jack Barrett, praying to God as 
he took aim, had saved his friend. 

“ My God! ’’ cried the commodore in the ship. 

What a shot I And did you ever see a braver 
boy I Look at him ! May God help him 1 ” 

“ The other men are up now,” said Captain 
Harper. “Look! ” 

There were one or two charged pistols still left, 
and the first American sailors now reached the 
group. They fired them at the savages, and then 
at Bob Dashaway’s direction, picked up the body 
of the mate and carried him down the beach. The 
savages followed closely, but as they presently 


302 


BOB DASHA WAY 


came within the range of the ship’s guns, their 
advance was checked by Captain Harper. They 
also made an attempt to rally on the brink of the 
cliff, but the sharp fire from Barrett and his men 
drove them back and the terrible battle was over. 


CHAPTER XXI 


XHE TREASURE AT LAST 

The death of Mr. Truefitt and the serious wound- 
ing of Mr. Rayton left Bob Dashaway in command 
of the shore party for the time being, and the 
determination of affairs devolved entirely upon the 
youngster. 

It was not yet possible for the commodore to 
recall Barrett and his covering party from the top 
of the pinnacle, nor could he detach any more men 
from those who remained on the ship. He could 
not tell how thoroughly the savages had been cowed 
and he did not dare to send any more men away 
lest he should be unable to serve his guns in case 
they made another attack. 

The beach was covered with dead, but there 
were still overwhelming numbers of islanders. 

Captain Harper volunteered to go on shore, but 
there was no boat on the ship which could be 
rowed by two or three men, who were all that 
303 


304 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


could possibly be spared as a last resort. The 
dinghy was ashore and so was the launch. The dis- 
tance to the cave was too far for hailing. The 
commodore could only wait and trust to the boy’s 
ingenuity and skill. 

Bob realised the situation as clearly as any one. 
He stopped at the foot of the cliff and hailed his 
friend and shipmate at the top. 

That was a fine shot you made, Jack,” he cried 
gratefully, “ it saved my life.” 

“ I am glad of it, Bob,” was the happy answer. 

“ You’ll keep a good watch and not let those 
fellows surprise us down here?” 

“ Never fear,” answered Jack, “ there isn’t a 
man that dare show his face on the cliff brink.” 

Bob nodded. He then directed his men to go 
within the cave and bring out the dead and 
wounded Americans. The bodies, living and dead, 
were soon ranged on the clean, dry sand at the 
cave’s mouth. Mr. Truefitt and one seaman had 
been killed in the boat, another seaman was lying 
in the boat seriously wounded. Mr. Rayton had 
been wounded on the strand and was now uncon- 
scious from loss of blood. Three men had been 



Her timbers were rotted clear through but she still 

preserved the outlines of a ship {p^g^ 3 oy) 



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TREASURE HUNTER 305 

killed outright in the cave, two had been very 
badly wounded and were helpless, making a total 
of nine killed or severely wounded. Every man 
of the others had received some kind of a hurt, 
but none of them were so badly wounded as to be 
unable to turn to. 

After a moment’s reflection. Bob decided to 
leave the bodies of the dead on the strand, to put 
the wounded in the launch, and with the survivors 
to row back to the ship and report. 

This was soon done. The commodore received 
him at the gangway and took him in his arms as 
he stepped on the deck. The wounded were care- 
fully passed aboard through a gun port, and the 
two commanding officers at once gave them every 
possible attention. That was the first thing to be 
done. 

These veteran seamen decided that, with the 
possible exception of the man who had been 
wounded in the boat, none of the wounds were 
mortal and that care and nursing would put most 
of the men on their feet speedily. Mr. Rayton’s 
wound in itself was not serious, but the loss of 
blood had greatly weakened him. 


3o6 bob DASHAWAY, 

As soon as the wounded had been looked to, 
Commodore Harkness called all hands. Seven- 
teen men and three officers responded. The men 
of the boat party had bound up their slight wounds, 
and as they had been refreshed by something to 
eat and drink and a good wash, they were quite 
ready for any further duty. 

“ Captain Harper,” said the commodore, “ you 
will take ten men and the cutter, you will tow the 
launch after you; Mr. Dashaway will go in the 
launch with two men. We must make shift with 
the rest to man the batteries and command the 
shore. You will examine the wreck that lies yon- 
der, and if you find any treasure, load it in the 
launch and tow it back here without delay. We 
will keep you covered with the battery and with 
the detachment on yonder rock.” 

“ Very good, sir,” said Captain Harper. 

It was hard work towing the launch, but the 
crew of the cutter managed it, and in no long time 
both vessels were run up on the beach. 

“ Great Heavens I ” exclaimed Captain Harper, 
as he entered the cave and saw the dead people 


TREASURE HUNTER 


307 

strewed around, “ what a fight you must have 
had!” 

“ Yes, sir,” said Bob. “ I have been in some 
sharp battles in the late war, as you know, sir, but 
I never saw anything like this.” 

“ First,” said Captain Harper, “ we’ll ship our 
own dead on the launch.” 

The bodies of Mr. Truefitt and the seamen 
were thereupon deposited in the stern sheets of the 
launch and covered decently with canvas. 

“ Now for the ship, men I ” cried Captain Har- 
per, when this was done. 

The Marigold had been a small, queer, old- 
fashioned vessel of about thirty tons, pierced for 
sixteen small guns. She was a complete wreck. 
The tidal wave or earthquake had carried her from 
her anchorage and whirled her into the cave and 
had dashed her so violently against the rocks that 
every mast had been crushed out of her. Her 
timbers were rotted clear through, but she still 
preserved the outlines of a ship. A mass of rusty 
iron, with here and there bits of spar and pieces 
of tarred cordage, lay on the lee side. The ship 
lay on her starboard beam ends. As they ran 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


308 

around the lower side to get into her, they stumbled 
over several human skeletons, evidently belonging 
to her unfortunate crew. 

Pretty much everything had rusted away in the 
long time that she had lain snugly enclosed in the 
dry cave — that is, everything but gold and silver. 
With axes and hatchets the men cut away the soft 
and decaying planking, and exposed the contents 
of the hold. 

The ship was a veritable treasure house. When 
her people had loaded her with the spoil of the 
great galleon they had left barely enough space 
for her crew and for a scant supply of provisions 
and water. Every place else was crammed with 
gold and silver, most of it in the shape of bars or 
ingots, but there were heaps and piles of pieces- 
of-eight, Spanish dollars, which had evidently been 
contained in bags, the canvas of which had rotted 
away. 

In what had been the captain’s cabin they found 
several heavy boxes, or small caskets, bound with 
iron clamps. These little chests were in bad con- 
dition, the wood much decayed, and the clamps 
rusted, but they still preserved their contents in- 


TREASURE HUNTER 


309 

tact. They were taken out with the utmost care 
and laid gently in the launch. 

The ship had other lading also, dusty heaps with 
here and there a scrap of some faded fabric which 
indicated that they had been bales of priceless 
silks, and there was about the whole wreck a faint 
indefinite odour of the spices of the far East, al- 
though the spices themselves had long since faded 
into dust. They were sorry that these things were 
gone, but what was left was enough to enrich them 
all beyond the dreams of avarice. 

All day long they toiled over their task; back 
and forth, between cave and ship, the boats passed 
and repassed, Mr. Harmon and the men on the 
ship taking the places of some of the boat party; 
Dashaway and others of the boat party relieving 
Barrett and his men on the pinnacle, and they in 
turn doing their part in stripping the wreck. 

The meeting between Jack and Bob was a very 
affecting one. Jack’s well directed shot had saved 
Bob’s life, and his daring climb up the cliff and his 
brilliant defence of his position had saved the lives 
of all of them. The two boys rushed into each 
other’s arms and hugged each other like mad. 


310 


BOB DASHA WAY, 


The commodore looked approvingly on. He said, 
when he could get them apart: 

“ I am proud of you both.” 

By nightfall, after such a day of toil as none 
of them had ever experienced, the wreck of the 
Marigold had been completely ransacked. Every 
ingot, every dollar, every box they could find was 
now safely stowed away on the Young American. 

The party on the pinnacle was withdrawn, and 
fire was kindled in the wreck of the Marigold. 
While she burned the people on the ship disposed 
themselves for the night. Nobody went below. 
Two officers were on watch all the time, the two 
second mates or the two captains. The men and 
the boys got what sleep they could by the side of 
the guns. They were not molested through the 
night, but their sleep was greatly disturbed, and 
indeed prevented, by the howls and shrieks and 
wails of the islanders. 

“ It seems to me,” said Commodore Harkness, 
“ that the islanders made a kind of a god of that 
ship, and they are howling not so much for their 
dead as because we have set her on fire.” 

“ I guess you are right, sir. I gathered so much 


TREASURE HUNTER 31 1 

from what Clawfinger said,” was Captain Harper’s 
answer. 

When morning broke, the men got out the boats 
again and hedged the Young American around the 
bend into the outer bay. Commodore Harkness 
managed to pick up his sheet anchor and decided 
not to attempt to water the ship. 

He waited until the tide was favourable, and the 
wind happening to be blowing seaward, he made 
sail and took the Young American through the 
narrow pass and into the open sea. 

In view of the successful quest of the treasure, 
he decided to abandon his original voyage and 
make for the Sandwich Islands, and thence return 
by way of the Cape to the United States, which, 
to anticipate, was safely reached some six months 
after the great adventure. 

The men who had been wounded all recovered. 
Mr. Truefitt and the others were buried at sea 
in true sailor fashion, the old commodore himself 
reading the prayers. The two boys, Dethridge, 
and Buntlin, and Mr. Harmon drew the flags from 
the five bodies as they were launched into the 
great deep in their shot-weighted hammocks. 


312 


BOB DASHAWAY, 


In the long voyage home the treasure was 
roughly appraised. It was easy enough to weigh 
the silver and gold, and to estimate its value, but 
the boxes when broken open were found filled with 
pearls, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and other 
precious and semi-precious stones, about whose 
value these seamen knew little. 

Commodore Harkness, however, guessed that 
there was at least three millions of dollars’ worth 
of treasure to be divided among the officers and 
men. He decided, and got the consent of all, 
that the division should be in accordance with the 
prize laws of the United States. That Mr. Har- 
per should receive an equal share with himself, 
that the officers of the Betsey should share alike 
with the officers of the Young American^ that the 
two boys should be rated as lieutenants, second 
mates, for the occasion, and that in the case of 
the men who had been killed, the sum which would 
have fallen to them should be given to their heirs. 

As the men of the Young American were sober, 
industrious, and substantial seamen, each one of 
them received enough money from the voyage to 
make him independently rich for the balance of 


TREASURE HUNTER 313 

his life; rich, that is, by the standard of those days, 
which was naturally much more modest than that 
which obtains in our own time. Even Madam 
Dashaway, when she realised the enormous fortune 
which her brother and her son brought back from 
this cruise, became more reconciled to the sea as 
a means of livelihood, and Bob easily got her per- 
mission to go on the next cruise of the Young 
American which the restless commodore was al- 
ready planning to the Orient. Dethridge had be- 
come permanently attached to the fortunes of the 
commodore for some time, and Jack Buntlin de- 
cided to follow his old shipmate’s example. 

Captain Harper resolved to give up the sea and 
live at home with his wife and children. Mr. 
Rayton had money enough to buy himself a ship 
of his own if he wanted, but he was a bachelor, 
he had grown fond of the lads and of Commodore 
Harkness, and as the commodore offered him the 
command of the Young American, proposing to go 
himself as a passenger, Mr. Rayton accepted the 
offer. 

Thus the fortunes and the misfortunes of all 
the characters in the story are described except 


314 


BOB DASHA WAY 


that of the arch villain of the cruise. They left 
the man with the vulture hand, Clawfinger, a white 
spot amid the dark bodies of the islanders on the 
beach as they sailed away. The commodore would 
have buried him too, but he was too far from 
the ship and it was too dangerous, and he had too 
few men to warrant him in taking the risk. 












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